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The Age of AI Ghosts
People can experience a digital afterlife with a loved one.
Each day, AI plays a greater role in our lives. Soon, it could also transform the way we interact with the dead.
鈥淭oday, you might interact with a Facebook memorial page for grandpa after he dies. But what would it feel like to actually sit down with grandpa by the fire and have a conversation with him?鈥 asked 麻豆免费版下载Boulder information science professor Jed Brubaker.
In听, Brubaker predicts a future in which individuals routinely create custom 鈥淎I agents鈥 to interact with the living after they鈥檙e gone. And he and his students have already begun beta testing their own 鈥淎I ghosts鈥 to gauge how people feel about them.
Rudimentary versions have been around for years, he noted. After musician Lou Reed died in 2013, his life partner created a text-based chatbot (trained with Reed鈥檚 writings, songs and interviews) that she still, reportedly, converses with. And, in 2019, a grieving mother famously used a virtual reality set-up听 of her young daughter, who had died years earlier.
Startups like听 and听 already help the living create posthumous digital versions of themselves, using pre-recorded video and audio clips.听
But Brubaker is most intrigued by what鈥檚 coming in the next innovation wave: Powered by tech features that enable autonomous next-gen bots to understand language, remember and make decisions, forthcoming 鈥淎I ghosts鈥 could do far more than regurgitate old stories.
For instance, they could have a live conversation about current events, write a new poem or help their kids manage their estate. But along with promise comes peril.
Can interacting with an AI ghost become unhealthy? How can one be sure no one will make a ghost out of them, against their will? When and how should a generative ghost die?
Brubaker doesn鈥檛 have the answers yet, but he hopes his research will get tech companies and policymakers thinking.
Illustration by Hokyoung Kim