--- title: "Ghoulish AI Simulates Your Dead Parents" description: "Mortality Who? AI-powered \"grief tech\" is here — and unlike us feeble mortal humans, it might be here to stay. As Charlotte Jee writes for the MIT Technology Review, these AI technologies, which work to capture loved ones — some through image and voice-mixed video, some through voice-generation alone — in a form that, yes, […]" date: "2022-10-18" modified: "2022-10-18" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ghoulish-ai-simulates-dead-parents" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "artificial intelligence" - "grief tech" - "the digest" --- # Ghoulish AI Simulates Your Dead Parents ![AI powered "grief tech," which captures lost loved ones and makes interactive versions of them, is here. And unlike feeble humans, it might be here to stay.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Grief Tech AI-powered "grief tech" is here — and unlike us mortal humans, it might be here to stay. As *MIT Technology Review* reports, the tech works by training an AI on images, recordings, and footage of recently deceased people to create a virtual form that those who are grieving can "interact" with. In most cases, the purpose of these AIs is to allow surviving loved ones to learn to live with their loss and preserve memories after death. "From what I could glean over a dozen conversations with my virtually deceased parents, this really will make it easier to keep close the people we love," wrote MIT's Charlotte Jee, who, with the help of her living parents, tested out a grief tech startup called [HereAfter AI]() for herself. "It's not hard to see the appeal," she added. ## HereAfter Coping with grief and loss is one of the most difficult parts of the human experience. But a crop of new startups like HereAfter — which [asks users to provide]() hours of recordings based on specific prompts, then generates conversations from that dataset — seek to soften the blow. "HereAfter is an app that lets you preserve meaningful memories about your life," [reads the company's website](), "and interactively share them with the people you love." Other companies, like UK-based StoryFile, allow quasi-holographic versions of deceased individuals [attend their own funerals](). According to Jee, her AI "parents" first sounded "distant and tinny," but started to "sound more like themselves" over time. And it does seem like she got some value out of the experience, saying that she learned a few new stories about each of her parents' younger lives, heard some tales about her own childhood, and even got some life advice. ## Stage One One could certainly make the argument that creating and listening to an AI-generated recording is just a different version of playing back old voicemails, watching old videos or just piecing through family photo albums. But while a photo album is static, an AI-generated voice that speaks from beyond arguably adds a different dimension of interactivity. In other words, it's invention — rather than preservation. But at the end of the day, it's up to the grieving to decide if they want an AI to mimic their deceased relatives or friends. **READ MORE:** [*Technology that lets us speak to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready?*]() \[*MIT Technology Review*\] **More on grief tech:** *[AI Allows Dead Woman to Talk to People Who Showed Up at Her Funeral]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()