Digital Afterlife AI News

Meta once explored an AI system that could keep posting on behalf of users after death, simulating their likes, comments, messages, and even calls from beyond the grave. This episode also looks at the wider rise of grief tech, AI resurrection tools, and new research warning that digital likenesses and chatbots can turn the dead into monetized “spectral labor” while raising serious questions about consent, memory, and digital afterlife cultureMeta’s old patent for an AI system that could simulate deceased users has reopened a bigger debate about what happens to our digital selves after death. The company’s concept imagined a large language model trained on a person’s past activity to keep liking, commenting, messaging, and even appearing in calls long after the user was gone, but Meta now says it has no plans to pursue the idea. That retreat comes as grief tech startups, funeral chatbots, and AI avatar tools continue to expand, making digital afterlife services a growing part of the broader AI economy.The issue is no longer just whether AI can imitate someone, but whether it should. Researchers studying AI resurrection technology argue that recreating dead people’s voices, faces, and personalities can amount to “spectral labor,” turning the dead into reusable digital workers without clear consent or legal protection. At the same time, related AI concerns are spreading into mental health, with studies warning that chatbots can reinforce delusions and intensify harmful thinking in vulnerable users. Together, these stories show how AI is moving deeper into grief, identity, and emotional dependence, while companies and regulators struggle to keep pace.Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency, Ginger Media & Entertainment, journalist and researcher on technology and entertainment, an MFA photographer and filmmaker, and host of the podcast Digital Afterlife: Hollywood & AI Tech