{"id":1817649,"date":"2026-03-10T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1817649"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:34:00","slug":"how-ai-is-changing-the-face-of-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1817649","title":{"rendered":"How AI is changing the face of grief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/46-0-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441167.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/69859\/1\/how-ai-is-changing-the-face-of-grief-death-artificial-intelligence-chatbot\" data-article-id=\"69859\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.67\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1270\" class=\"img\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441167.jpg\" width=\"1200\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Keeping Up With <span class=\"nowrap\">The Kardashians<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-10T11:34:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"10 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"10\">10,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>How AI is changing the face <span class=\"nowrap\">of grief<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>People are turning to \u2018griefbots\u2019 trained on the data of deceased loved ones to cope with loss \u2013 but are the companies behind this technology playing fast and loose <span class=\"nowrap\">with ethics?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-10T11:34:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"10 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"10\">10,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-10T11:34:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"10 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"10\">10,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/LauraMolloy\">Laura Molloy<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>AI once promised to assist in healthcare advancements and streamline arduous admin tasks, yet its most notable offerings thus far seem to be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/deepfake-porn\"><span>deepfake porn<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69035\/1\/they-said-it-was-more-cost-effective-meet-the-workers-replaced-by-ai\"><span>job losses<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/65752\/1\/is-brain-rot-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-an-investigation-clive-martin\"><span>brainrot Instagram reels<\/span><\/a><span>. Now, our tech overlords are happy to sacrifice further gallons of fresh water so you can comment \u201cslay\u201d on your friend\u2019s selfie from beyond the grave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their vampirish penchant for sucking away at our reality, more and more of the tech world have begun dipping their toes into the so-called \u201cdigital afterlife\u201d industry, promising us that our souls \u2013 albeit meagre, digitised renderings of them \u2013 can live on eternally. Last year, the AI app 2wai launched, with the USP that it could <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFenaK4wIsw\"><span>create avatars of our loved ones that will live on after them<\/span><\/a><span>. In a viral ad, a grandson is able to speak to his dead grandmother at each stage of his life \u2013 from his first words to the day he has a child of his own.\u00a0<\/span><span>Arguably more significantly, a few weeks ago, news broke that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/meta-granted-patent-for-ai-llm-bot-dead-paused-accounts-2026-2\"><span>Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Meta has secured an AI patent<\/span><\/a><span> that would simulate a person\u2019s social media activity after they die, allowing them to post, like and comment on the platform eternally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>These emerging \u2018grief bots\u2019 can be split into two categories: archival and generative. The former allows the user to essentially organise details from somebody\u2019s life, uploading audio, video, photos and more, to be browsed at a later date. The Meta patent and 2wai fall into the generative category, eerily promising new memories with someone who is no longer breathing. \u201cInstead of just serving authentic content, it fabricates responses that feel like the person but are not grounded in their actual thoughts, values, or intentions,\u201d explains Dr Jenny Kidd and Dr Eva Nieto McAvoy, who are exploring the digital afterlife industry through the project <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.syntheticpasts.com\/about\"><span>Synthetic Pasts<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-tiktok\" data-id=\"7315622183617989934\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Mired in ethical issues, both systems \u201ccommodify grief and memory within a platform economy, turning emotional experiences into data,\u201d they say. \u201cGenerative bots are significantly more ethically fraught, however, because they create the illusion of continuity and agency where none exists, misleading users and monetising emotional attachment to something that was never truly there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though seemingly a symptom of our dystopian times, commodifying grief is nothing new. Mediums have long accepted cash in exchange for cryptic messages from our dearly departed, and even Catholic priests once charged mourners to say the right prayers that would guarantee a deceased family member entry to heaven. <\/span><span>\u201cThroughout history, we\u2019ve known that those continuing bonds with our deceased loved ones are a very powerful motivator for people,\u201d says <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/maryfrancesoconnor.org\/\"><span>Mary-Frances O\u2019Connor<\/span><\/a><span>, professor of clinical psychology and psychiatry and author of <em>The Grieving Body <\/em>and <em>The Grieving Brain<\/em>. \u201cNeurochemically, [grief] uses the strongest chemicals we can create in the body \u2013 dopamine and oxygen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>What\u2019s different in 2026, though, is that tech companies like Meta will be able to utilise the incomparably traumatising experience of grief to gather data that can be used for their own financial gain. For example, a very common experience of grievers is to have conversations with their deceased loved one in their head. \u201cNow, suddenly, that information is owned by a company that knows our deepest desires, our biggest worries, our most tender moments, to use however they want to, to capitalise on our motivation to sway us and sway our attention and our spending,\u201d O\u2019Connor explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some grief bots, Kidd points out, \u201cposition themselves as facilitating comfort, continuity, or even comfort,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t seem that they\u2019re actually beneficial in the grief process, nor are their current forms designed with psychological care in mind. Rather, it is likely profit and data that they are primarily chasing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>They create the illusion of continuity and agency where none exists, misleading users and monetising emotional attachment to something that was never truly there<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>So what does that actually mean for grief? O\u2019Connor explains that, when a loved one dies, our brains have two streams of information: \u201cOne side says they\u2019re gone forever, the other side says they\u2019re everlasting, and those are both true in some sense,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe know they\u2019re gone, but we also just feel like they\u2019re going to walk through the door again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Death bots, she fears, will emphasise only one aspect of those two realities, in feeding the brain the impression that the loved one is still alive. \u201cThat could be a problem, because you have to live in a world where they\u2019re not going to give you a hug, where they\u2019re not going to come pick you up if your car breaks down, and they don\u2019t have a physical form anymore. There is real concern that this could create more difficulty in learning that they&#8217;re really gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And besides, technology is fickle. With each innovation comes the collapse of something else. Even if you meticulously preserved your loved one as a death bot, archiving their every quirk and mannerism, tech startups are notorious for collapsing as quickly as they emerge, meaning there will, almost inevitably, eventually be another thing to grieve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In January, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/shouts-murmurs\/a-day-in-my-highly-optimized-convenient-life\"><span>comedian Meghana Indurti wrote a fictional account of a day in a \u201chighly optimised, convenient life\u201d<\/span><\/a><span> for the <em>New Yorker,<\/em> where technology takes over even her smallest responsibilities \u2013 from watering her plants to responding to messages from friends and family. Though satirical, her piece doesn\u2019t seem too far a stretch from the future Silicon Valley companies envision for us. From gleaming San Francisco offices and studio apartments, tech bros spend days and nights pondering new ways to smooth out the creases in our lives until we finally glide through a frictionless existence. Today, thanks to ChatGPT, you no longer need to use your own brain to draft grocery lists, write wedding vows or complete university assignments. Many things we never considered extreme challenges are now so effortless that to do them the \u2018old-fashioned way\u2019 seems strenuous.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-tiktok\" data-id=\"7426493750559411488\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Grief, though, is not a daily task to be simplified or streamlined. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable, hard to bear and heavy to hold. The painful absence of somebody you love never truly diminishes, though the gaping hole they leave in your life does eventually become less all-consuming. The journey towards that is well trodden; it is something that humans have always faced and always will. In creating this technology, it is as if the tech companies responsible believe we can bypass the crushing reality that people simply stop existing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, in a world where well-established mourning rituals are already embedded in our cultures, there may not ever be a widespread desire for these grief bots. \u201cThe fact that something is technically possible does not make it socially necessary or ethically defensible,\u201d Kidd says. \u201cThe more urgent question is not whether we can build this, but who decides that we should \u2013 tech giants, who stand to gain from it \u2013 and the rest of us, who bear the risk. Death and memory are not neutral design spaces. They are socially and ethically charged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As humans, we spend most of our lives quietly facing loss and change anyway, from the constant changing of the seasons to a breakup of our favourite band, or even the collapse of societal structures that once seemed stable. Everything ends, and so, eventually, will the tech companies that are mistaken to imagine we can run from, or avoid, the pain of grief. It\u2019s just a matter of bracing for what damage they will do in the meantime.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! 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This Brooklyn chef thinks so<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/magazine\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"fakemink\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-752-2399-1596\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439649.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Buy Dazed Magazine<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69804\/1\/why-micro-apartments-are-on-the-rise-housing-crisis-renting-london\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1193876\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-1-2000-1330\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439994.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">\u2018It\u2019s super claustrophobic\u2019: Would you live in a micro-apartment?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69700\/1\/palestine-comedy-club-documentary-alaa-shehada\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Palestine Comedy Club\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-504-1997-1328\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438110.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">This doc follows 6 Palestinian comics risking their lives on tour<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69794\/1\/tiktok-figure-skater-laine-on-ice-dubin\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Laine Dubin\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-484-1179-784\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439851.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Figure skater Laine Dubin wants you to go outside and get a hobby<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>AI once promised to assist in healthcare advancements and streamline arduous admin tasks, yet its most notable offerings thus far seem to be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/deepfake-porn\"><span>deepfake porn<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69035\/1\/they-said-it-was-more-cost-effective-meet-the-workers-replaced-by-ai\"><span>job losses<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/65752\/1\/is-brain-rot-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-an-investigation-clive-martin\"><span>brainrot Instagram reels<\/span><\/a><span>. Now, our tech overlords are happy to sacrifice further gallons of fresh water so you can comment \u201cslay\u201d on your friend\u2019s selfie from beyond the grave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their vampirish penchant for sucking away at our reality, more and more of the tech world have begun dipping their toes into the so-called \u201cdigital afterlife\u201d industry, promising us that our souls \u2013 albeit meagre, digitised renderings of them \u2013 can live on eternally. Last year, the AI app 2wai launched, with the USP that it could <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFenaK4wIsw\"><span>create avatars of our loved ones that will live on after them<\/span><\/a><span>. In a viral ad, a grandson is able to speak to his dead grandmother at each stage of his life \u2013 from his first words to the day he has a child of his own.\u00a0<\/span><span>Arguably more significantly, a few weeks ago, news broke that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/meta-granted-patent-for-ai-llm-bot-dead-paused-accounts-2026-2\"><span>Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s Meta has secured an AI patent<\/span><\/a><span> that would simulate a person\u2019s social media activity after they die, allowing them to post, like and comment on the platform eternally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>These emerging \u2018grief bots\u2019 can be split into two categories: archival and generative. The former allows the user to essentially organise details from somebody\u2019s life, uploading audio, video, photos and more, to be browsed at a later date. The Meta patent and 2wai fall into the generative category, eerily promising new memories with someone who is no longer breathing. \u201cInstead of just serving authentic content, it fabricates responses that feel like the person but are not grounded in their actual thoughts, values, or intentions,\u201d explains Dr Jenny Kidd and Dr Eva Nieto McAvoy, who are exploring the digital afterlife industry through the project <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.syntheticpasts.com\/about\"><span>Synthetic Pasts<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-tiktok\" data-id=\"7315622183617989934\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Mired in ethical issues, both systems \u201ccommodify grief and memory within a platform economy, turning emotional experiences into data,\u201d they say. \u201cGenerative bots are significantly more ethically fraught, however, because they create the illusion of continuity and agency where none exists, misleading users and monetising emotional attachment to something that was never truly there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Though seemingly a symptom of our dystopian times, commodifying grief is nothing new. Mediums have long accepted cash in exchange for cryptic messages from our dearly departed, and even Catholic priests once charged mourners to say the right prayers that would guarantee a deceased family member entry to heaven. <\/span><span>\u201cThroughout history, we\u2019ve known that those continuing bonds with our deceased loved ones are a very powerful motivator for people,\u201d says <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/maryfrancesoconnor.org\/\"><span>Mary-Frances O\u2019Connor<\/span><\/a><span>, professor of clinical psychology and psychiatry and author of <em>The Grieving Body <\/em>and <em>The Grieving Brain<\/em>. \u201cNeurochemically, [grief] uses the strongest chemicals we can create in the body \u2013 dopamine and oxygen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>What\u2019s different in 2026, though, is that tech companies like Meta will be able to utilise the incomparably traumatising experience of grief to gather data that can be used for their own financial gain. For example, a very common experience of grievers is to have conversations with their deceased loved one in their head. \u201cNow, suddenly, that information is owned by a company that knows our deepest desires, our biggest worries, our most tender moments, to use however they want to, to capitalise on our motivation to sway us and sway our attention and our spending,\u201d O\u2019Connor explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some grief bots, Kidd points out, \u201cposition themselves as facilitating comfort, continuity, or even comfort,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t seem that they\u2019re actually beneficial in the grief process, nor are their current forms designed with psychological care in mind. Rather, it is likely profit and data that they are primarily chasing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>They create the illusion of continuity and agency where none exists, misleading users and monetising emotional attachment to something that was never truly there<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>So what does that actually mean for grief? O\u2019Connor explains that, when a loved one dies, our brains have two streams of information: \u201cOne side says they\u2019re gone forever, the other side says they\u2019re everlasting, and those are both true in some sense,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe know they\u2019re gone, but we also just feel like they\u2019re going to walk through the door again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Death bots, she fears, will emphasise only one aspect of those two realities, in feeding the brain the impression that the loved one is still alive. \u201cThat could be a problem, because you have to live in a world where they\u2019re not going to give you a hug, where they\u2019re not going to come pick you up if your car breaks down, and they don\u2019t have a physical form anymore. There is real concern that this could create more difficulty in learning that they&#8217;re really gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And besides, technology is fickle. With each innovation comes the collapse of something else. Even if you meticulously preserved your loved one as a death bot, archiving their every quirk and mannerism, tech startups are notorious for collapsing as quickly as they emerge, meaning there will, almost inevitably, eventually be another thing to grieve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In January, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/shouts-murmurs\/a-day-in-my-highly-optimized-convenient-life\"><span>comedian Meghana Indurti wrote a fictional account of a day in a \u201chighly optimised, convenient life\u201d<\/span><\/a><span> for the <em>New Yorker,<\/em> where technology takes over even her smallest responsibilities \u2013 from watering her plants to responding to messages from friends and family. Though satirical, her piece doesn\u2019t seem too far a stretch from the future Silicon Valley companies envision for us. From gleaming San Francisco offices and studio apartments, tech bros spend days and nights pondering new ways to smooth out the creases in our lives until we finally glide through a frictionless existence. Today, thanks to ChatGPT, you no longer need to use your own brain to draft grocery lists, write wedding vows or complete university assignments. Many things we never considered extreme challenges are now so effortless that to do them the \u2018old-fashioned way\u2019 seems strenuous.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-tiktok\" data-id=\"7426493750559411488\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Grief, though, is not a daily task to be simplified or streamlined. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable, hard to bear and heavy to hold. The painful absence of somebody you love never truly diminishes, though the gaping hole they leave in your life does eventually become less all-consuming. The journey towards that is well trodden; it is something that humans have always faced and always will. In creating this technology, it is as if the tech companies responsible believe we can bypass the crushing reality that people simply stop existing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, in a world where well-established mourning rituals are already embedded in our cultures, there may not ever be a widespread desire for these grief bots. \u201cThe fact that something is technically possible does not make it socially necessary or ethically defensible,\u201d Kidd says. \u201cThe more urgent question is not whether we can build this, but who decides that we should \u2013 tech giants, who stand to gain from it \u2013 and the rest of us, who bear the risk. Death and memory are not neutral design spaces. They are socially and ethically charged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As humans, we spend most of our lives quietly facing loss and change anyway, from the constant changing of the seasons to a breakup of our favourite band, or even the collapse of societal structures that once seemed stable. Everything ends, and so, eventually, will the tech companies that are mistaken to imagine we can run from, or avoid, the pain of grief. It\u2019s just a matter of bracing for what damage they will do in the meantime.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69859\/1\/how-ai-is-changing-the-face-of-grief-death-artificial-intelligence-chatbot&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1080\/46-0-1080-720\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441167.jpg&#8221;] Keeping Up With The Kardashians March\u00a0 10,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ Feature Life &amp; Culture \/ Feature How AI is changing the face of grief People are turning to \u2018griefbots\u2019 trained on the data of deceased loved ones to cope with loss \u2013 but are the companies behind this technology playing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1817649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1817649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1817649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1817649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1817649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}