Grief tech companies are largely unregulated, but the data they can access to create virtual personas and how close they are to the people grieving them raises concerns. Image credit: Pexels
Dealing with the death of a loved one is always difficult and complicated. How far should you go to find closure? How should those caring for the grieving family act? And what happens to the digital assets of the deceased family?
To complicate things further, technology companies are getting into the business of helping people grieve: In a new field known as “grief tech,” artificial intelligence (AI) companies are creating lifelike chatbots that can imitate the voices of those who have died.
A good example is Christy Angell of New York, who signed up for an AI chatbot that pretended to be her deceased partner, Cameroon. “I knew it was an AI system, but when I started chatting with her, I felt like I was talking to Cameroon. It felt that real,” she says.
However, things took a disturbing turn when the chatbot, Cameroon, told her she was in hell. Angel, a devout Christian, was deeply upset by this and asked for an clarification in a second, separate conversation with the chatbot. Eventually, the chatbot reassured her that she was not in hell.
Angel is one of a growing number of people turning to AI to help them cope with grief, made possible by advances in generative AI – the technology that creates lifelike text, voice and images from simple prompts.
Her story, along with others who have used technology to cope with grief, are featured in the documentary “Eternal You,” which premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival in the UK and is due to be released to the public on June 28.
German directors Hans Block and Moritz Rieswick expressed concern about using AI in this way: “These vulnerable people would quickly forget that they were talking to a machine learning system, which is a huge problem for regulating these kinds of systems,” Block said.
Angel used a platform called Project December, created by video game designer Jason Lawler. Initially an art project to create personas for chatbots, Project December now helps users recreate loved ones who have passed away. The site advertises this with the tagline “Simulate the Dead.” Users input details about the deceased, including nicknames, personality traits and cause of death, which are then fed into an AI model.
Lawler charges $10 per user to cover operating costs, and claims that many people are happy with the service. Many say it's helpful and are grateful for its development, but Lawler acknowledges that some users have been put off by the chatbot's inaccuracies and out-of-character responses.
Another example of grief tech featured in the documentary is YOV (“You, Only Virtual”), which allows people to create a “persona,” or virtual persona, of themselves or a loved one who has passed away.
YOV founder Justin Harrison worked with his mother Melody to create her versona before her passing in 2022. Harrison, 41, continues to converse with Melody's versona, finding solace in its evolving nature.
“Humans are well known to be consistent and universal in their desire to stay connected with loved ones who have passed away. We're just doing that with the tools that are available to us in 2024,” he says.
But Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor of human-technology interaction, warns that these AI applications could impede the grieving process, calling it “grief resistance and endless séances.”
The documentary also looks at the positive use of AI.
South Korean woman Jang Ji-seon lost her 7-year-old daughter Na-yeon to a serious illness in 2016. In 2020, she participated in a TV show that created a virtual reality version of Na-yeon. Footage shows Jang emotionally interacting with the virtual child.
Jean found the experience extremely beneficial, but only as a one-time event. It gave her a kind of closure after the sudden loss. “I would recommend this if you feel any less guilt or pain, and if you're feeling very hopeless,” she says.
But Chang isn't interested in repeating the experience with new AI technology; he would rather write a handwritten letter and leave it where his remains are to visit his grave.
Both Angel and Jiang pointed to a 2013 episode of the TV series “Black Mirror” in which a woman uses her deceased lover's online communications to bring him back to life. Now, as technology has caught up with such fictional depictions, researchers are calling for regulation of grief tech.
Legal questions have also arisen around the use of data to create these digital portraits. Andrew Wilson-Bushell, a lawyer at UK law firm Simkins, points out that laws are complex and vary from country to country. “As with anything AI-related, the law is untested, highly complex and varies from country to country. Users and platforms need to think about their rights over training data and its outputs, and the various sources of regulation in the UK,” he explains.
Ultimately, he believes the acceptance and use of AI to simulate deceased loved ones will face intense public scrutiny: “I think the use of AI ghosts will be tested in the court of public opinion long before there are any legal challenges.”
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