To some, chatbots of the dead are useful tools that can help us grieve, remember, and reflect on those we’ve lost. To others, they are dehumanising technologies that conjure a dystopian world. They raise ethical questions about consent, ownership, memory and historical accuracy: who should be allowed to create, control or profit from these... See more

Whether AI ghosts are helpful or harmful may also depend on a survivor’s age and culture. Complicated grief is the more likely outcome for children who, depending on the developmental stage, might see death as an impermanent state. A child who can see a parent’s AI ghost might insist that the parent is alive.