Take our Depression Test

Find a therapist to heal from grief

Big Tech is expanding to new realms in human experience for data extraction.

"Grief tech" exploits AI to create digital avatars of deceased loved ones, offering illusory comfort.

AI-driven digital immortality raises ethical concerns.

As this weekend marks the sixth-year of my father’s death, I have been reflecting on the process of grief more than usual. While I saved a trove of voicemails from him years before his death, I rarely listen to them—although knowing they are accessible to me has always been a source of comfort. I decided to play one message at random this weekend, and was surprised at the intensity of my grief and sorrow as I heard an all-too familiar and loving voice that I haven’t had the privilege to listen to in what feels like a lot longer than six years.

But alas, Big Tech is offering big promises to save us from our grief.

Given all the ways that technology companies have expanded their reach into our everyday lives, monetizing virtually every aspect of the human experience (e.g., Zuboff, 2019), perhaps it is unsurprising to hear that many of these same companies are offering us digital immortality. Largely derived from generative AI, companies are offering digital avatars of our loved ones after they have died. We can seek out “chatbots” imitating the cadences of our deceased loved ones as long as we are willing to offer up all their digital data or other forms of information about them prior to their death. Silicon Valley is ready to enable users to bypass the messiness of grief altogether—so long as we have the data that they can harness.

In fact, thought leaders have described a “grief tech........

© Psychology Today