Artificial intelligence is emerging as a new technology for those mourning the loss of a loved one. The use of AI is just beginning to be used in the grieving process, bringing the dead to life through the emerging technology. However, while some see it as a way to allow a person to live on through memories, others have expressed concerns over the ethics and whether it truly heals the individuals experiencing the loss of a loved one.
Still, those concerns are not stopping Michael Bommer, a terminally ill German man, and his wife from creating an AI-generated version of his voice to live on past his lifetime.
Bommer, who has been diagnosed with colon cancer, has entered the final stage of his life. Bommer said he finds comfort in knowing his wife will be able to listen to his words after his death, hopefully bringing her comfort in the process as well.
For months, the couple teamed up with Robert Locascio, CEO of legacy platform Eternos. The company worked to build “a comprehensive, interactive version” of Bommer — Eternos’ first client.
Locascio said that the interactive technology has 300 different phrases that they captured. He calls it “your emotional voice,” which may bring different cadences to how someone says, “I love you,” or “Oh, the door is open.”
Locascio said that one hour of recording takes about two days to compute. He added, “that becomes your voice. That becomes your talking AI, I’ll call it your essence.”
Eternos uses external language models developed by companies like Meta, OpenAI and the French firm Mistral AI. The model can answer questions from life events to the person’s political views through a computer. The cost for the service is $15,000.
Eternos is among several companies that are venturing into the business of grief-related AI technology. Some examples include California-based company, StoryFile, which allows users to interact with prerecorded videos of loved ones through the use of algorithms to answer questions.
HereAfter AI also offers a similar interaction with a “life story avatar.” Meanwhile, Seance AI offers fictional seances for no cost. However, if one wish to incorporate a loved one into their seance, the cost is $10.
However, ethical questions remain, like if a company goes belly-up. For instance, StoryFile has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and said that it owes around $4.5 million to creditors. Still, the company said that it is currently setting up a “fail-safe” system that allows families to have access to material whether or not it folds.
Furthermore, a researcher who co-authored a study on the use of AI technology for those who have died said that the technology raises other concerns, like the rights and consent of the dead and whether the services truly offer closure to the mourners. The researcher said that it remains “a vast techno-cultural experiment.”
