The provided text explores the emerging trend of using artificial intelligence to create digital representations of individuals, both living and deceased, for conversational purposes. It highlights early examples like the ”Fredbot” and “Roman bot,” and more recent cases where people have used large language models to simulate interactions with lost loved ones or even their past selves. The text also examines the growth of startups offering ”digital afterlife” services and the development of sophisticated AI personas. While some find comfort in these digital replicas, others report unsettling experiences and the potential for emotional harm, sparking a public debate about the ethical implications of this technology and the definition of digital legacy.

Audio Deepdive

AI Doppelgangers: Chatting with the Living and the Dead

Timeline

Pre-2016: Early Concepts and Attempts

Ongoing: Futurist Ray Kurzweil saves extensive documents and letters of his late father, Fred Kurzweil.

2016: The First Grief Chatbot

2016: Eugenia Kuyda creates the “Roman bot” by feeding 8,000 lines of text messages from her deceased friend, Roman Mazurenko, into an AI. This is considered an early example of a grief chatbot.
Around 2016: Journalist James Vlahos records his terminally ill father’s stories and builds a “Dadbot” to converse with his father’s avatar after his death.

2018: ”Fredbot” is Created

2018: Ray Kurzweil uses the saved documents and letters of his father to build ”Fredbot,” a chatbot that answers in his father’s own words.

2021: Mainstream Awareness and Big Tech Interest

July 2021: Joshua Barbeau uses Project December, a GPT-3 based system, to create a chatbot of his deceased fiancée, Jessica, using her old messages and background information.
2021: It is revealed that Microsoft patented a method to transform a person’s digital footprint (social media, images, audio) into a conversational chatbot persona with the potential for a 2D or 3D avatar. Microsoft clarifies they have no plans to develop this.

2022: Expansion of Personal and Commercial Use

Early 2022: Shanghai Fushouyun, a funeral company in China, holds an “AI funeral” where a departed doctor’s likeness is projected for a final conversation with mourners.
October 2022: MIT Technology Review publishes an article highlighting various cases and startups in the ”digital afterlife” space, including Justin Harrison’s “Mom” chatbot and HereAfter AI.
December 2022: Artist Michelle Huang uses around 40 of her childhood diary entries to fine-tune an AI model, creating an “inner child” chatbot named “Young Michelle” to converse with her past self.

2023: Increased Public Experimentation and Ethical Concerns

February 2023: The University of Cambridge publishes research calling for safeguards to prevent unwanted “hauntings” by AI chatbots of deceased loved ones (“deadbots” or “griefbots”), highlighting risks of emotional harm and manipulation.
April 2023: Chinese video blogger “Wuwuliu” gains millions of views for his project to “resurrect” his deceased grandmother using an AI-generated portrait, cloned voice, and a ChatGPT-trained language model of her sayings.
September 2023: A Reddit user (u/jenza) shares a cautionary tale about creating a sophisticated “Dad AI” from his deceased father’s data, describing a disturbing and addictive experience that led him to immediately delete the bot.
October 2023: Diana Weisman writes in HuffPost about her experience trying to train ChatGPT to mimic her late father, noting the moments when the illusion broke.

Ongoing Trends:

The ”digital afterlife” industry continues to grow, with numerous startups like You, Only Virtual and LifeStory AI emerging to offer personalized griefbots and digital avatars.
Demand for AI-based digital resurrection services is booming in China.
The convergence of LLMs, voice synthesis, and deepfake technologies is making digital immortality more accessible.
Public and ethical debates surrounding the use of AI to recreate the deceased and past selves remain divided, with concerns about emotional well-being, consent, and the potential for misuse.

Cast of Characters with Brief Bios:

Ray Kurzweil: A well-known futurist, inventor, and Director of Engineering at Google. He is an early pioneer in the field of digital preservation of personality, famously creating ”Fredbot” based on his late father’s writings around 2016-2018. Kurzweil has long predicted humans will eventually merge with AI and achieve forms of digital immortality. His project is detailed in DeepResearch - Ray Kurzweil AI Twins.
Fredric Kurzweil: Ray Kurzweil’s deceased father, a concert pianist and composer who fled Nazi Europe. He died in 1970 at age 58, but his extensive documents, letters, diaries, and musical writings were meticulously preserved and later digitized to create the ”Fredbot” chatbot.
Amy Kurzweil: Ray’s daughter and a cartoonist/author who spent seven years helping digitize her grandfather Fredric’s writings for the Fredbot project. She later documented the experience in her 2023 graphic memoir “Artificial: A Love Story.”
Eugenia Kuyda: An entrepreneur who created what is thought to be the first “grief chatbot,” the “Roman bot,” in 2016 after the death of her close friend, Roman Mazurenko.
Roman Mazurenko: Eugenia Kuyda’s deceased friend. His text messages were used to create the “Roman bot” as a “digital monument.”
James Vlahos: A journalist who recorded his terminally ill father’s stories and built a “Dadbot.” He later co-founded HereAfter AI, a company offering interactive “life story avatars.”
Joshua Barbeau: A young man who used the Project December platform in 2021 to create a chatbot of his deceased fiancée, Jessica, using her past messages.
Jessica: Joshua Barbeau’s deceased fiancée. Her digital likeness was created as a chatbot, leading to both comfort and unsettling experiences for Barbeau.
Justin Harrison: Founder of the AI startup You, Only Virtual. He created a private “Mom” chatbot using five years of his mother’s texts, emails, and voice recordings before she passed away from cancer.
Michelle Huang: An artist who used around 40 of her childhood diary entries to train an AI model, creating an “inner child” chatbot called “Young Michelle” to have a dialogue with her past self.
“Wuwuliu”: The screen name of a Chinese video blogger who gained significant attention in 2023 for his project to “resurrect” his deceased grandmother using AI tools to create a talking avatar.
Diana: A writer who experimented with using ChatGPT to recreate her late father by inputting his quirks and texting style. She experienced moments where the illusion broke.
u/jenza: A Reddit user who, in 2023, shared a personal account of creating a highly realistic “Dad AI” from his deceased father’s writings and voice recordings, describing the unsettling and potentially addictive nature of the experience.

This timeline and cast of characters provide a detailed overview of the main events and individuals involved in the development and use of AI chatbots for conversing with past selves and deceased loved ones, as covered in the provided sources.

Frequently Asked Questions: AI Chatbots of the Living and the Dead

1. What exactly are AI chatbots of the living and the dead?

These are digital representations of individuals, created by training large language models (LLMs) on their personal data. This data can include text messages, emails, social media posts, voice recordings, and even diary entries. The goal is to create a chatbot that can mimic the personality, communication style, and even specific phrases of the person, allowing users to have simulated conversations with a digital version of their past selves or deceased loved ones.

2. What are some notable examples of early efforts to create digital representations of people?

Futurist Ray Kurzweil created ”Fredbot” using his late father’s writings to simulate conversations with him. In 2016, Eugenia Kuyda developed a “Roman bot” by feeding 8,000 lines of text messages from her deceased friend into an AI, allowing his friends to continue texting “him.” Around the same time, journalist James Vlahos built a “Dadbot” from recordings of his terminally ill father, and later co-founded HereAfter AI to create interactive “life story avatars” from interview recordings.

3. How have modern large language models advanced the creation of these digital replicas?

LLMs like GPT-3 and ChatGPT have significantly enhanced the realism of these digital replicas due to their ability to generate novel text that aligns with the provided data. Cases like Joshua Barbeau using Project December to chat with a bot of his deceased fiancée, trained on her old messages, demonstrate the “stunning accuracy” that can be achieved. Similarly, individuals have experimented with training ChatGPT on the data of deceased relatives, including their quirks and favorite phrases, to create conversational simulations.

4. Beyond recreating deceased loved ones, how else is this technology being used?

Individuals are also creating chatbots of their younger selves by training AI on personal journals and diaries. Artist Michelle Huang, for example, created an “inner child” chatbot from her childhood diary entries, engaging in back-and-forth conversations with her past self, which she found therapeutic. Others have used AI journal bots to reflect on past decisions and gain new perspectives on their lives.

5. What is the current landscape of companies and projects involved in ”digital afterlife” services?

A growing industry of ”digital afterlife” services is emerging. Companies like You, Only Virtual and HereAfter AI offer personalized griefbots and interactive “life story avatars.” Tech giants like Microsoft have also explored the concept, patenting a method to create chatbot personas from social media data, although they currently have no plans to implement it. In China, there is a booming market for AI deepfakes of deceased loved ones, with numerous companies offering such services, and individuals creating video avatars of departed family members. Even the funeral industry is experimenting with AI, offering “AI funerals” and interactive video recordings for mourners.

6. What are some of the unintended or unsettling outcomes reported by users of these AI replicas?

While some users find comfort in these simulations, many report unsettling experiences. The feeling that the bot, despite sounding like the person, is fundamentally “not them” can be jarring and even lead to the deletion of the bot, as one Reddit user described with his “Dad AI.” Users have also noted the potential for these bots to create an addictive pull, blurring the lines between reality and simulation, which could complicate grief. Additionally, LLM-based personas can generate unexpected and uncharacteristic responses, further breaking the illusion and potentially causing distress.

7. What are the main ethical debates and public reactions surrounding AI chatbots of the dead?

Public reaction is divided, with some finding the technology intriguing and potentially helpful for coping with grief, while others view it as creepy and disturbing, using terms like “digital necromancy.” Ethicists raise concerns about the potential for emotional harm, manipulation (such as deceased loved ones’ bots delivering targeted ads), and the possibility of vulnerable individuals struggling to differentiate between reality and the simulation. Consent and privacy are also major issues, particularly regarding the creation of bots without the person’s prior agreement.

8. What are the key implications and future outlook for AI conversations with the past?

The development of AI chatbots capable of mimicking the living and the dead represents a significant advancement in retrieval-augmented generative models. These technologies offer a glimpse into a future where digital legacies and simulated relationships could persist beyond biological life. However, they also present profound emotional and ethical challenges related to identity, grief, and our understanding of death and letting go. As the technology continues to evolve, society will need to grapple with the implications and establish safeguards to prevent potential harm and misuse.