That question eventually led Manning, now a doctoral candidate in information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, to study a new kind of AI-powered memorial known as a “generative ghost” — a chatbot built from a person’s digital footprint that lets family and friends hold conversations with their avatar after they die.
“It is definitely a growing sector,” Manning said. “We’re seeing growth in interest in how AI and grief intertwine.”
Surprisingly convincing
”Generative ghosts” are AI chatbots created using a person’s digital footprint, such as their social media posts, emails, voice recordings and videos. The goal is to recreate parts of a loved one’s personality, allowing family and friends to have conversations with a digital version of them after they die.
The technology comes as more Americans turn to AI for emotional support. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 1 in 10 U.S. adults who use AI chatbots say they use them for emotional support or advice, while 4% use them for companionship.
A growing number of companies now offer the technology. One platform, Re;memory, lets users create AI avatars of deceased loved ones, while Seance AI uses artificial intelligence and interactive storytelling to create fictional séance experiences. The company says its service is for entertainment only and cannot communicate with real spirits or deceased people.
As part of his research at the University of Colorado Boulder, Manning helped study how people respond to these “ghosts.” The team found participants generally preferred chatbots that spoke as if they were their deceased loved one rather than having AI act as a narrator describing their loved one.
In fact, Jed Brubaker, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies socio-technical systems, said even today’s publicly available AI tools can create a surprisingly convincing version of a loved one.
“You can get a reasonable, although thin representation of a loved one with a single prompt on a free ChatGPT account,” Brubaker told CBS News. “The same way you might prompt it to say, ‘Talk to me like Shakespeare,’ you can say, ‘Talk to me like my grandfather — here are some details about how he acted.’”
