Feed a “grief bot” photos and info about your dead loved one, and it will create a generative ghost.
When information science researcher Jack Manning lost his sister 10 years ago, he sought a way to make her memory permanent. For his family, a generative ghost of her likeness was the answer.
“It took years of bake sales and 5Ks to raise money to honor her memory in a way that was meaningful to us. We got to see how much effort is required to create a memorial that’s impactful,” he told CBS News. “I thought, surely there is a way that technology can help us.”
Several companies offer these services, such as Séance AI, You, Only Virtual and re;memory.
“By allowing you to interact with a lifelike digital avatar of your loved one, you can find solace in expressing your love and forgiveness, creating a bridge to the cherished moments you hold dear,” Re;memory says on its website. The tool “allows you to see and hear your parents as they were in their cherished photos, rather than just imagining them.”
In a study from the University of Colorado, researchers found that participants who tested out grief bots were astonished by how well they could emulate their lost loved one.
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There’s a difference between a grief bot and a death bot. The former recreates a loved one’s voice and manner of speech as a way of connection. A death bot may simply play back statements recorded by a loved one.
“You can get a reasonable, although thin representation of a loved one with a single prompt on a free ChatGPT account,” said researcher Jed Brubaker. “The same way you might prompt it to say, ‘Talk to me like Shakespeare,’ you can say, ‘Talk to me like my grandfather — here are some details about how he acted.'”
Whereas the grief bots/generative ghosts “are capable of saying things a loved one might not have said. Ghosts are AI models that can talk for somebody, maybe answering a question that they didn’t answer when they were alive,” Manning explained.
These grief bot companies charge monthly costs around $20 or $25 for users to create and interact with the bots.
While the bots may bring some comfort to the living, there are a few questionable ethics involved. The nature of some of these companies exploits grief, the University of Alabama Human Rights Blog author pointed out.
It also raises questions of posthumous harm and dignity. In a way, these programs allow you to alter the dead and make them what you want them to be. And a person may not want to be replicated by their loved ones after they die.
They may also alter the mourning process. At some point in the grief process, grievers must accept the absence of their loved one. If they are constantly turning to these bots to fill a void and stay in a place of denial, it may prolong the grieving period.
Researcher Kwan Yiu Chang argues that these companies must prioritize non-addiction countermeasures. Otherwise, it causes too much disruption to the vulnerable griever.
Chang wrote in the Journal of Responsible Technology, “Non-addiction insists on the prioritisation of user well-being and recognises that use of the grief bot is transitory. There must be design measures that prevent addiction, such as time-outs and consistent reminders of the AI-generated nature of the grief bot… Non-manipulation requires that AI systems do not exploit users through design features that influence behaviour in a hidden or coercive manner.”
So if you choose to use a grief bot, perhaps do so with caution.
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