Believe it or not, some AI companies are now in the business of reviving dead people. The digital avatars of the dead, to be more precise. All they need are things like photos, videos, texts, and emails of the deceased. With this information, the AI then churns out a digital avatar who will look and talk eerily similar to the person you lost.

These avatars are called ghostbots and are made using generative AI programs and deep fake technology. 

While many people believe ghostbots can lessen the grief a person or family feels after losing a loved one, some experts warn this technology can do more harm than good.

“I’m intrigued by the advent of ghostbots. But I’m also more than a little concerned about the potential effects of this technology on the mental health of those using it, especially those who are grieving,” Nigel Mulligan, an assistant professor in psychotherapy at Dublin City University, told The Conversation. 

Can people connect with ghostbots?

Just like deepfakes, ghostbots are merely a simulacrum of a real person. They are more like interactive audio-visual representations of the data generated by a person.

However, grief is a strong and complex emotion. Bereaved people may find solace in ghostbots during those tough times. 

Digital ghosts also give people a chance to say or express things to their dearly departed that they wanted to but never had the chance when the person was alive. It’s perhaps not surprising that some companies have figured out a way to cash in on these feelings.

This is already happening in China. Last year in April, when the Chinese were celebrating Qingming, a festival that commemorates and honors the dead, many funeral companies began offering ghostbot services to their clients.

The response seems to have been positive, judging from the thousands of deployed ghostbosts that these companies claim they’ve served to their customers.

Seakoo Wu and his wife, who lost their 22-year-old son Xuanmo, hired one such AI company. While talking about their experience, Wu told Euronews: 

“Is there a solution for the pain of losing a loved one? First, you need to change your perspective. For example, the idea that there are no connections between the departed loved ones and yourself can be changed. The connections definitely exist. If you can believe in this mindset, your pain may lessen.”

Whenever Wu’s wife misses her son and has tears in her eyes, her husband brings out the phone and lets her interact with the digital avatar of Xuanmo. The ghostbot consoles her, saying things like:

“I know you’re in great pain every day because of me, and feel guilty and helpless. Even though I can’t be by your side ever again, my soul is still in this world, accompanying you through life.”

Wu and her wife don’t want to stop here. They want to create and deploy a super-realistic digital avatar of their son in the Metaverse so that they can meet Xuanmo virtually whenever they miss him. 

This is just one of the many examples of how ghostbots are being used in China. However, this isn’t the first time AI has been used to digitally revive the deceased.

In 2021, a freelance writer based in Canada used a software powered by ChatGPT to develop a customized AI chatbot. The bot talked like her ex-fiancee Jessica who passed away eight years ago due to liver disease. This was just a text-based ghostbot and yet talking to it meant a lot to the bereaved writer, who spent hours interacting with it. 

A report from Forbes reveals that ghostbot service providers are also emerging in the US, but whether they will be successful is yet to be seen. 

Are ghostbots good for humanity?

AI programs are often found to be biased and make errors. Currently, no AI company including OpenAI, Google, or Microsoft guarantees that whatever response their chatbots give will be 100 percent accurate and sensible.

Therefore, the ghostbots made using such AI programs can also produce responses that can emotionally hurt someone, further intensifying their grief and pain.  

“A key question here is … how ‘loyal’ are the ghost bots to the personality they were designed to mimic. What happens if they do things that will ‘contaminate’ the memory of the person they are supposed to represent,” Tal Morse, a research fellow at the UK-based University of Bath, told SCMP.

Moreover, if a person died in a painful and horrific way (such as murder, rape, shootout), interacting with their ghostbot may amplify grief. This could cause more guilt and trauma to the ghostbot users.

“AI ghostbots could further traumatise someone experiencing complicated grief and may exacerbate associated problems such as hallucinations. Or, in a more extreme scenario, if the ghostbot suggested the user join them in death or they should kill or harm someone,” Mulligan said.

Such interactions can disturb the lives of individuals and families by severely affecting their mental health. Therefore, it is very important to ensure the technology is 100 percent safe — if such a thing is ever possible — before we put it into use. 

What about letting go

According to psychologists, grief has five stages; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages play a crucial role in ensuring a person experiences grief and then overcomes it in a healthy manner.

The use of ghostbots may disturb this process. For instance, the last stage acceptance is about coming to terms with the loss and letting go of your emotions such as pain, guilt, or depression. 

However, with a ghostbot who is always there to talk, you may never feel the need to let go of the deceased person from your thoughts. It may make you feel comfortable but at the same time, you might never be able to overcome the loss.

Grief is not just about letting go and moving on. It is a human way to process loss, deal with pain, and gradually learn to live again so that the ones who left us can continue to live with us, as we remember them.