#griefbots

#griefbots

When someone we love dies we often yearn for the impossible: one more conversation. Maybe we want the opportunity to finally gain clarity about a difficult relationship or to say, I love you one last time to someone we cherish. While raising the dead is still out of reach more and more people are turning to generative AI tools such as Replika to conjure the essence of their loved ones and have those final conversations.

Her digital seance was not cathartic, nor did it give her any closure. After an emotional two hours of hearing her father's voice from the machine, which she dubbed Dadbot, she ended the conversation, never to interact with it again. "Saying goodbye to Dadbot was surprisingly hard," she says. "When I finished and turned it off, I spent the rest of the day feeling like I had done something wrong."