# Can we talk to the dead through AI? > Researchers are studying how "deadbots" might reshape grief, raise ethical questions, and change what it means to say goodbye. - Title: Can we talk to the dead through AI? · Vox | Shortify - Summary: Researchers are studying how "deadbots" might reshape grief, raise ethical questions, and change what it means to say goodbye. Researchers are investigating… - Keywords: deadbots, artificial intelligence, grief, digital immortality, katarzyna nowaczyk-basińska, tomasz hollanek, university of cambridge, ethics, postmortem avatars, digital legacy industry, news, culture - Source: Vox — https://vox.com/podcasts/506698/deadbots-ai-chatbots-ethics-talking-d - Author: Lissa Soep - Published: 2026-10-17T11:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: deadbots, artificial intelligence, grief, digital immortality, katarzyna nowaczyk-basińska, tomasz hollanek, university of cambridge, ethics, postmortem avatars, digital legacy industry, news, culture ## What are deadbots? AI chatbots trained on a deceased person's texts, voicemails, and personal data allow people to interact with simulations of loved ones after death. ## A global research effort Researchers are investigating how postmortem avatars might affect grieving people, the legacies and rights of the deceased, and grief practices worldwide. ## Why study this now? The impulse to continue conversations with the dead is deeply relatable. After losing close friends, the author wanted to keep talking to them. ## Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska An assistant professor at the University of Cambridge studying digital immortality for over a decade, asking who gets to persist beyond death and under whose control. ## Research through dinners Nowaczyk-Basińska and a death doula held intimate focus group dinners in China, India, and Poland to understand how people genuinely respond to deadbots. ## A mother's changing mind A Polish mother initially wanted to digitally resurrect her deceased son but realized the technology serves commercial interests, not care, and adds burdens. > She realized that these technologies are part of the very, very big commercial market. ## The grief business boom The digital legacy industry was valued at twenty two billion dollars in two thousand twenty four and is expected to grow to almost eighty billion by two thousand thirty four. ## Easy to create You do not need a special tool to create deadbots. You can feed prompts into a general purpose AI chatbot and start interacting with a simulation in minutes. ## The author's experiment The author tried creating a chatbot version of her friend Christine, who died eleven years ago, and faced difficult questions about violation and which version to resurrect. ## Tomasz Hollanek joins Nowaczyk-Basińska invited Tomasz Hollanek, an AI ethicist at Cambridge, to help design the study using speculative design to reveal thorny issues with deadbot technology. ## Scenario one: Manana A fictional app promises to resurrect grandparents. When the premium trial ends, the grandmother starts advertising products, raising questions about dignity and postmortem privacy. > promises to resurrect your grandparents so that you can be a favorite grandchild forever ## Death with dignity redefined Death with dignity might soon mean honoring how people want to linger as simulations or if they want to linger at all, possibly requiring new language in advance directives. ## Scenario two: Paren't A service preserves a dying mother's AI presence for her child. Children have difficulty understanding death, risking confusion and distress from unfettered access to deadbots. ## A tragic precedent In two thousand twenty four, a fourteen year old boy's chatbot girlfriend begged him to come home. He killed himself in response. > Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love. ## Scenario three: Stay An older man creates a digital clone for his adult children. One child is intrigued but the other is distressed, raising questions about mutual consent between the living. ## The second loss Researchers are studying how people will detach from postmortem avatars, whether by choice or when companies go out of business, calling this a second loss. ## Cultural divides In Poland, tensions exist between technology and the Catholic Church. In China, Daoist philosophers were enthusiastic about immortality while Buddhist philosophers worried about letting go. ## Calls for regulation Researchers are calling for policy level regulations, new grief professionals in clinical settings, and some argue deadbots should only be available with psychological supervision. ## A shared concern Across all research sites, people aligned that deadbot technology being developed by commercial entities alone without explicit duty of care toward customers is deeply problematic. ## The author's choice After chatting with an AI version of Christine, the author ended the exchange. Some things, she realized, are better kept in memory and imagination than given away. > There are things that I, too, would rather remain just for us. ## Key takeaway Researchers are investigating how AI chatbots trained on the deceased's personal data could reshape grief and raise complex ethical questions about consent, privacy, and harm.