More people have been creating avatars of deceased loved ones by turning to artificial intelligence chatbots.
One such app that has risen to prominence and offers this unique service is HereAfter AI. The Black Mirror-esque app collects information from hours worth of interviews before a person passes away and manages to turn this into a realistic version of the dead person, providing bereaved families with an opportunity to communicate with them.
Although for some this is viewed as a creepy, unnecessary way to stoke the fires of grief, others have said it is a nice feeling to hear the voice of a loved one after their death.
READ MORE: Fears over AI 'grief tech' that brings family back from dead as holograms
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Dr. Stephenie Lucas Oney, 75, sometimes still turns to her dad for advice despite him dying in May 2022. Before William Lucas' death he told a virtual interviewer at HereAfter AI all about his past as a black man from Harlem, New York who made his living as a police officer, FBI agent and judge.
“I want the children [four children and eight grandchildren] to hear all of those things in his voice,” Dr Oney toldThe New York Timesfrom her home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. "And not from me trying to paraphrase, but to hear it from his point of view, his time and his perspective.”
"We take photographs, we make journals and life-story books, we record videos," James Vlahos, CEO of HereAfter AI, toldDaily Telegraphearlier this year. "It’s not novel to collect and save memories of the people we love.
"But we’re offering a way of doing that which makes it easy to gather the recordings and easy to access them – as simple as pulling out an app, asking a question about someone’s life and instantly hearing what they have to say."
StoryFile, another service which uses AI, goes one step further as it records recollections on video. According to StoryFile, about 5,000 people have made profiles and have made videos in which subjects appear to make eye contact, breathe and blink as they respond to questions.
Among the people to use the platform is actor Ed Asner, who was interviewed eight weeks before his death in 2021. Mr Asner’s StoryFile was sent to his son Matt Asner, who was "blown away" by what his father said.
“It was unbelievable to me about how I could have this interaction with my father that was relevant and meaningful, and it was his personality," he told the New York Times. "This man that I really missed, my best friend, was there.”
Matt even played the file at his father's memorial service, and although some people were moved by the experience, there were some who found it uncomfortable. Lynne Nieto is another who watches her husband, Augie's, StoryFile as a way of remembering him.
Augie died in February from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis but recorded a StoryFile so his grandchildren could watch it someday. The first time Lynee watched the file was about six months after he died. “I’m not going to lie, it was a little hard to watch,” she said.
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