Have You Set Up Your AI Dead Bot Yet?

What are AI Death Bots anyway? Imagine talking to your grandma after she’s gone. Sounds impossible, right? Well, AI death bots make this possible. These are computer programs that copy how dead people talked. They use old messages, videos, and photos to create digital versions.

Podcast – The Rise of AI Dead Bots

Video – Growing number of companies using AI to create ‘deadbots’ of deceased loved ones

AI deadbots are digital avatars created using AI to represent deceased individuals, often using personal data and generative AI to create realistic likenesses and voices. Think of them like super-smart chatbots that sound just like someone who died.

How Do These Digital Ghosts Work?

These AI systems are pretty clever. They study everything a person left behind online.

This includes text messages, social media posts, and voice recordings. The computer learns how that person talked and acted.

Eternos records users speaking 300 phrases and then compresses that information through a two-day computing process that captures a person’s voice.

Some companies need you to record specific phrases. Others use what’s already available online.

The process is simpler than you might think:

• Collect digital memories (texts, photos, videos)
• Train the AI on this information
• Create a chatbot that talks like the person
• Let family members chat with the digital version

Why Are People Creating These Digital Spirits?

People make AI death bots for different reasons. Some families want comfort after losing someone. Others use them for important causes.

In May, a bearded AI avatar of Chris Pelkey, the deceased victim of a road rage incident in Arizona, gave a video impact statement at the sentencing of the man who fatally shot Pelkey. This helped bring justice in court.

The family of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of the 2018 Parkland school shooting in Florida, created a beanie-wearing AI avatar of him and had it speak with journalist Jim Acosta in July. They’re fighting for better gun laws.

Some people find these bots helpful for grieving. It’s like having one more conversation with someone they miss.

Should You Be Worried About This Deadbot Technology?

Scientists have some serious concerns about AI death bots. Cambridge researchers lay out the need for design safety protocols that prevent the emerging “digital afterlife industry” causing social and psychological harm.

Here are the main worries:

Grief Problems: These bots might make it harder to accept that someone is gone. Instead of healing, people might get stuck talking to digital ghosts.

Privacy Issues: These services run the risk of causing huge distress to people if they are subjected to unwanted digital hauntings.

From alarmingly accurate AI recreations of those they have lost. What if someone creates a bot of your grandpa without asking your family first?

Money Troubles: The digital afterlife industry is expected to quadruple in size to nearly $80 billion over the next decade. Companies see big profits in people’s sadness.

Could Dead People Start Selling You Stuff?

This sounds crazy, but it might happen. The potential for companies to use deadbots to surreptitiously advertise products to users in the manner of a departed loved one.

Picture your favorite dead celebrity trying to sell you sneakers. Weird, right?

A digitally manipulated Fred Astaire appeared in a Dirt Devil commercial in 1997, a decade after the entertainer died. This already happened with old movie stars. AI makes it much easier now.

Companies are saying they won’t do this. But researchers think it’s just a matter of time. “Of course it will be monetized,” said Lindenwood University AI researcher James Hutson.

What Companies Are Already Making These Deadbots?

Several companies offer these services right now:

Project December: You pay $10 to chat with a digital version of someone. You answer questions about the person first.

HereAfter AI: Creates “Life Story Avatars” using personal stories and recordings.

Eternos: Makes talking versions of people using voice recordings and AI models.

Seance AI offers fictionalized seances for free. Extra features, such as AI-generated voice recreations of their loved ones, are available for a $10 fee.

These services cost between $0 and hundreds of dollars. Most charge monthly fees to keep the bots running.

Do We Need Rules for Digital Death?

Right now, there aren’t many laws about AI death bots. There are no comprehensive federal laws governing the use of AI in the United States. This worries many experts.

“Experts agree on that we need much more discussion on this and we need much more ethical guardrails and framework that will help us to make sense of this new phenomenon.”

Scientists want rules about:

• Getting permission before creating someone’s digital copy
• Protecting people from unwanted “digital hauntings”
• Stopping companies from using grief to make money
• Making sure children aren’t confused about death

What Should You Think About Dead Bots?

AI death bots are fascinating and scary at the same time. They might help some people feel better after losing someone. But they could also cause new problems we’ve never faced before.

What truly sets this era apart — and is even unprecedented in the long history of humanity’s quest for immortality.

Is that, for the first time, the processes of caring for the dead and immortalization practices are fully integrated into the capitalist market.”

Before we had AI, death was final. Now technology is changing what it means to die. That’s both amazing and troubling.

The choice is yours. Would you want to talk to an AI version of someone you lost? Or would that make things harder? These are questions each person needs to answer for themselves.

The Bottom Line

AI death bots are here to stay. The “digital afterlife industry” is “expected to quadruple in size to nearly $80 billion over the next decade.” This technology will only get better and more common.

Whether you think they’re helpful or harmful, it’s worth understanding how they work. They’re changing how we think about death, memory, and saying goodbye.

The future of grief is digital. Are you ready for it?