My Grandmother Glitches the Machine

Some may fear the liberties AI will take with the legacies of the dead. To this we emphasise that these liberties are ours to authorise. Chatbots of the dead are creative representations that users should take an active role in shaping. Imagination is integral to all creative representations of the past because imagination is inextricable from memo... See more

This shift from chatbotsas companions to tools of artistic remembrance deflates many common concerns. From this vantage point, we can see that chatbot ‘actors’ do not necessarily aim at realism. They cannot and will not capture a deceased person fully. They do not delude users into behaving as if the dead are still alive or believing that they are ... See more

And so, the builder of this chatbot is forced to ask difficult questions about the deceased that call for care and attention: how do I want to remember them? How should a person be remembered? The deliberative effort that goes into building a chatbot highlights that the end product is a representation, inflected with the creator’s choices and persp... See more

To some, these technologies are nothing more than embalming tools, made to mask the inevitable pain of profound loss. And among these many tools, what could be more pernicious than a chatbot that speaks in the voice of those who are, in reality, gone forever?