AI-powered “deathbots” that simulate deceased individuals are turning remembrance into a commercial product, according to new research. The study found these platforms promote a “critically over-simplified understanding of memory, connection, and personhood”.

The research, published in Memory, Mind & Media, found that services in the growing “digital afterlife industry” create interactions that are often “insincere and uncanny”, while obscuring the ethical complexities of their own business models.