As technology impacts most aspects of our lives, it also affects the way we respond to death, and mourn. Not too many years ago, for example people grieving after a death didn't have to worry aboutmemorializing loved ones' social media accounts(Links to an external site.), aboutincluding "digital assets" in a will(Links to an external site.), about beingpainfully reminded of their loss(Links to an external site.)by a company's well-intended but ill-considered "engagement" efforts, or about potentially losing treasure troves of memories if aphoto hosting platform shut down(Links to an external site.).

The sadness is as old as the world, but people, through technology, respond to it in new ways. One such recent development is the creation of "griefbots." An article titled"The Griefbot that Could Change How We Mourn"(Links to an external site.)details in particular the work of a data scientist, Muhammad Ahmad, who hopes that artificial intelligence will "eventually allow us to craft the data left behind by an individual into convincing text-based simulations of that person. " Such simulations would "respond when prompted, imitating the deceased's cadence, tone, and idiosyncrasies."

Ahmad has been working on his own "griefbot." The project was a response to a personal lossthe death of his father. It is an effort to reclaim (or continue) interactivity with someone who has died. Beyond the interaction with those who knew the deceased, however, Ahmad also envisions a kind of interactivity that would span generations:

When his father died four years ago, Ahmad lamented the fact that any future children he would have would never be able to bond with their grandfather. He drew on hisprevious research(Links to an external site.), ... and spent the last few years collecting data his father had left behind, such as audio or video recordings, text messages, and transcripts of letters. This information has allowed him to create a messenger program that (he claims) can imitate his father. ...

Ahmad now has a 2-year-old daughter, and as he continues to evolve his simulation (he's currently exploring how to enable it respond to images and adapt to new contexts), he hopes that one day she'll form the semblance of a connection with her grandfather.

Questions

• Is the development of "grief bots" ethical? How might this action be perceived through the ethical frameworks of utilitarianism, deontology/rights, and virtue?
• In 1991, in what was dubbed a"virtual duet,"(Links to an external site.)singer Natalie Cole "'resurrected' her late father [Nat King Cole] to create a new version of his signature song 'Unforgettable' featuring them both"; are griefbots different from "virtual duets"? If so, in what way(s)?
• Should consent be required from the people who might be memorialized in this way?
• What impact will OpenAI's speech understanding system have on such "bots" over time?

https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/internet-ethics/resources/ai-death-and-mourning/

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The development of grief bots raises complex ethical considerations Through a utilitarian lens it co... View the full answer