{"id":36103,"date":"2025-09-27T04:38:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=36103"},"modified":"2025-09-27T04:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:38:18","slug":"ai-cant-raise-the-dead-but-it-might-do-the-next-best-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=36103","title":{"rendered":"AI can\u2019t raise the dead, but it might do the next best thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=73f106e7-5174-4f38-93e9-6cd1448b1052\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The idea of using technology to bring back the deceased has been a mainstay of science fiction for decades. In one 2013 episode of the Netflix series <em>Black Mirror,<\/em> a woman named Martha recreates her deceased partner using his digital footprint, first as a chatbot, then as a voice companion in the vein of Apple\u2019s Siri, and eventually as a physical robot.<\/p>\n<p>Humans are not yet churning out robotic replicas of loved ones who have passed on, but nor are they light years away. Thanks to rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence and voice technology, a new industry known as \u201cgrief tech\u201d is already helping users to process loss.<\/p>\n<p>Approaches differ, but the premise is the same: to use video chat, text, phone, or voice assistant to converse with a digital version of someone who is no longer alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the US, StoryFile creates \u201creal life chatbots\u201d by using pre-recorded videos of the soon-to-be departed answering questions posed to them by their loved ones, allowing real-time conversations. HereAfter AI is an voiced-based app that generates responses based on hours of interviews conducted with the subject.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other start-ups go further. You, Only Virtual uses the subject\u2019s digital records \u2014 text messages, emails, and voice conversations \u2014 to train a digital clone that sounds and thinks like the subject.<\/p>\n<p>While griefbots may offer comfort in mourning, they could also complicate the grieving process by not giving closure. There are also privacy and ethics to consider. Who owns the data, and what if it is stolen? Should a living person be able to opt out of being cloned after their death? And what if users try to create virtual versions of the living without their consent?<\/p>\n<p>As far as how much this could be worth, mental health spending might be a rough proxy. Americans spend approximately $300bn per year on behavioural health services, according to Bourne Partners,\u00a0a healthcare financial advisory firm. The question then is how users will pay. Will it be by subscription, like ChatGPT? Or billed by the hour, like a therapist? Some companies might even sell ownership of the digital decedent outright. Elon Musk says Tesla\u2019s Optimus humanoid robot, perhaps a good comparison for a virtual companion, could cost up to $70,000.<\/p>\n<p>As society becomes more comfortable interacting with chatbots via platforms such as ChatGPT and Anthropic\u2019s Claude, it seems inevitable that the market for griefbots will grow. The idea of communicating with the deceased will no longer be just the stuff of dystopian sci-fi TV series.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/mailto:pan.yuk@ft.com\" data-trackable=\"link\"><em>pan.yuk@ft.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/73f106e7-5174-4f38-93e9-6cd1448b1052\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}