BEYOND THE GRAVE
The chatbots generated by HereAfter AI are not sophisticated polymaths like Alexa but instead offer a fairly limited repertoire of spoken responses based on personal biographies.
Charlotte Jee, a reporter for MIT Technology Review who created avatars of her living parents, described the experience of interacting with these bots as “undeniably weird”.
A question to her virtual “mother” about her favourite jewellery elicited the stilted response: “Sorry I didn’t understand that. You can try asking another way, or move on to another topic.”
Still, in some carefully curated situations, it might feel more engaging than listening to voicemails on repeat.
Another company, StoryFile, adds video to its digital offering. Its chief executive, Stephen Smith, showcased StoryFile’s wares by displaying a video avatar of his mother bidding farewell — at her own funeral. The companies charge either an upfront fee or a monthly subscription to access the avatars.
Lucy Selman, associate professor in palliative and end-of-life care at Bristol university in the UK, and founder of the online Good Grief Festival, describes grief tech as “an interesting advance”.
But, she says, “before it is introduced more widely, a lot more research is needed into its ethical dimensions and how and when it might be useful, or indeed harmful, in serious illness and in bereavement”.
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