Now AI can take your dead loved one’s social media posts... and turn them into a hologram you can chat to in the kitchen
A comfort? Or the creepiest idea you’ve ever heard?
SIDE by side, four young cousins chat with their grandmother via a video link. ‘What’s your favourite sport?’ one of them asks Marina Smith as she reclines in a comfy armchair. ‘It used to be tennis and hockey and I am also very interested in horsejumping,’ the 87-year-old replies, before adding: ‘But I don’t ride a horse!’
The response elicits a chuckle from her grandchildren who continue to talk about her likes and dislikes, as well as enquiring what it’s like to be a grandparent.
An everyday scene, in other words. Except for one fact. Several weeks before this perfectly natural-looking inter-generational conversation took place, Mrs Smith had passed away.
That she was still able to talk to her relatives is all thanks to new technology that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to bring the dead back from beyond the grave in a virtual form.
Dubbed ‘grief tech’ or ‘digital necromancy’, a growing number of start-ups are offering services that promise to keep the memories of lost loved ones alive for ever.
Some, such as that used by Mrs Smith, are based on pre-recorded videos with the subject. Relatives can then ask questions of them, with an AI interface seamlessly and instantly selecting the appropriate response depending on what has been asked.
Though Mrs Smith spoke via a video screen, others using the same technology have re-appeared as talking, moving holograms.
Such is the speed of change powered by the AI revolution that what was once the stuff of science fiction has now become reality.
By learning from video footage, photographs and other material such as social media posts and text messages, AI can recreate a version of an individual that looks, speaks or interacts like the real person. The range of grief tech ranges from simple chatbots to sophisticated avatars that imitate the look and sound of the deceased.
After your parents pass away, you can meet them in the cloud through AI technology, to alleviate the pain of the death of your loved ones,’ promises one South Korean company that has already ‘reunited’ a number of bereaved individuals with ultra-realistic video-generated version of their loved ones. ‘Let us use AI to remember our parents’ smiling faces and their warm voices for ever.
‘Live in the cloud through AI, live in the hearts of loved ones.’
Fine in theory but in reallife the roll-out of grief tech is raising ethical questions and dividing opinion.
Those who have taken advantage of these new services say they offer a valuable way to preserve and pass on memories and details of lives that otherwise would be forgotten. They also say they can provide comfort to those using them in much the same way that flicking through a photo album or watching a home video would do. But among the concerns about the new technology is the worry that in order to maximise profits the tech companies will make their offerings as ‘addictive’ as possible, so that grieving relatives can be charged again and again to see their dead loved ones, rather than simply paying a flat fee.
There are also warnings that the realism of the avatars may make it harder for the bereaved to come to terms with their loss, particularly when younger people are involved.
Suzy Turner Jones, the director of clinical services at Grief Encounter, a charity that supports bereaved children and young people, says much more research needs to be done before their impact can be properly understood. ‘Is this going to prolong despair, or create comfort?’ she asks. ‘Is it going to be enabling in terms of understanding following someone’s death, or cause confusion?
‘At Grief Encounter we ensure that after the death of someone close, language, for example, is clear and concise — that the person is no longer alive and not coming back. AI presents a new set of challenges that could affect this. Memories are something to be treasured, and perhaps not to be reinvented in such a visceral way.’
Users of the app
HereAfter AI, are encouraged by a virtual interviewer to record themselves talking about different aspects of their lives. Those audio recordings are organised to create what it calls a Life Story Avatar, a representation of the user that lives on in digital form and can then respond to questions from loved ones.
Packages, linked to usage, cost up to €7.50 a month.
Another service, StoryFile, is centred on video. It is the brainchild of Stephen Smith, whose mother Marina is among those to have recorded their recollections, memories and key life moments.
In January 2022 she was filmed by her son over a two-day period, answering more than 100 questions ‘I learnt things about her and her interests that I didn’t even know about,’ says Mr Smith, who lives in Los Angeles.
Using the material, he then created what he calls a ‘conversational AI video’ of her. While all the answers came from his mother, the AI element of the process analyses what she has said and then ‘listens’ to questions before instantly providing the appropriate video response. It meant that when Mrs
Smith, who was honoured in 2005 for her work for Holocaust remembrance, died in June 2022, she was even able to feature at her own funeral, responding to questions on a TV screen.
‘Mum answered questions from grieving relatives after they had watched her cremation,’ Mr Smith said. ‘Relatives were staggered by my mum’s new honesty at her funeral. She had been too embarrassed to reveal her true childhood. A question about it suddenly had her revealing her childhood in India that we knew nothing about.’ A few weeks later, Mrs Smith’s grandchildren also asked to ‘talk to grandma’.
‘It was quite a moving experience, because obviously they love grandma a great deal but it wasn’t emotional in the sense they were sobbing about their loss, now it was more about their curiosity,’ he said. ‘They were learning things about her that they didn’t think to ask when she was still alive.’ And
She was even able to feature at her own funeral, on a TV screen
he adds: ‘This is not a tool designed for death, it is a tool designed to document life, much like you would with a photograph album.’
The most basic StoryFile package costs from €45 and involves recording video on your phone, with more sophisticated options costing up to €460. At the top end, the technology exists to preserve the individual as an interactive hologram — but is not yet available to the public. Another advocate of using tech to remember a loved one is Tracy McInerney. She lost her 56-year-old mother Mary to breast cancer in 2006. In the wake of her loss, she drew solace listening to her mum’s voice on a voicemail message. But two years later she lost access to the messaging service, leaving her devastated. ‘It felt like losing her once again,’ says the 52-year-old, who splits her time between Ireland and the UK.
Then, in 2019, her aunt gave her a Christmas present — a compactdisc recording she had made of Mary when she appeared on a local radio station. ‘It was the first time I had heard her voice in 12 years and it was such a lovely gift and I thought it would be so lovely if I had more of that, more of her voice,’ she said.
From that thought was born the idea for Autumn Whispers, an app that allows people to leave a digital time-capsule for their loved ones. Using their smartphone they can record their own thoughts and memories, combined with photos and videos, and create a package that can be downloaded by others when they have gone.
‘Doing research I realised that people may be more comfortable talking but are not always great about going on video,’ she says.
‘So you record as you go and then you curate that material as well. You can edit it and leave different folders for different family members if you want.’ The app is due to launch next spring.
She adds: ‘When you lose a parent you kind of think about them every day anyway, regardless of whether you have a recording of them or a photo.’
It’s not a tool designed for death, it is to document life