China uses AI to resurrect the dead.

Chinese Developers Create “Griefbots” to Reconnect with the Deceased

Chinese developers have created “griefbots,” chat programs that use cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to represent the personalities and recollections of the deceased. These bots aim to help loved ones reconnect with those who have passed away.

Yu Jialin, a 29-year-old Chinese software engineer based in Hangzhou, wrote an essay describing the use of computer programs to match lip movements to speech recordings in lip-syncing technology. This inspired him to recreate his grandfather, who passed away more than ten years ago, using AI.

How it Works

Yu obtained a collection of old letters from his grandmother to teach the AI model about his grandfather. The AI version of his “Grandpa” delivered a generic response when Yu asked the program, “Hey, Grandpa. Guess who I am?”

According to Haibing Lu, an information and analytics professor at Santa Clara University, AI systems like ChatGPT have already figured out how most people naturally speak or write. Lu says that “you only need to tweak the systems a little bit in order to loosely get a 99% similarity to your person. The stark differences will be minimal.”

Controversy and Ethical Considerations

While some believe griefbots offer friends and families a way to cope with the pain of loss, others raise ethical considerations around data protection and privacy regulation, particularly about denying people agency posthumously. Sue Morris, director of bereavement services at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, warns that griefbots significantly reduce the user’s level of control.

Furthermore, Lu suggests that griefbots and their byproducts may present difficult moral choices. Scammers or fraudsters may find it simple to use a deceased person’s identity to their advantage. They could send that person’s data to an AI and then have someone pose as a psychic who converses with the dead’s spirit.

An American firm called HereAfter.AI also provides an opt-in experience for users to submit their own personalities online. An AI machine creates a digital avatar for each person that can communicate with their friends and family after they pass away after learning about them through uploaded images, audio logs, and questionnaires.

Conclusion

As technology advances, psychologists frequently use new techniques to help clients grieve. While griefbots may seem like a technological step up from envisioning a deceased loved one sitting in an empty chair, they significantly reduce the user’s level of control.

As the popularity of generative AI increases in China, along with reports of new griefbots, it’s important to consider the ethical implications of using AI to bring the dead back to life.