AI “Generative Ghosts” Let You Chat With the Dead — But at What Cost?
The way we mourn is changing. A new wave of startups is using large language models to build interactive digital simulations of deceased loved ones — chatbots trained on the departed’s social media posts, emails, voice recordings, photos, and other personal data. Researchers and ethicists are watching closely, and the early findings reveal a surprisingly nuanced picture of how people respond to AI-mediated grief.
From Bake Sales to Bots
Jack Manning understands the emotional weight of memorialization. After his sister died more than a decade ago, his family spent hundreds of hours organizing volunteer projects and fundraisers — bake sales, 5K runs — to honor her memory in a way that felt meaningful. The experience left him wondering whether technology could ease that burden.
“It took years of bake sales and 5Ks to raise money to honor her memory in a way that was meaningful to us,” Manning told CBS News. “We got to see how much effort is required to create a memorial that’s impactful. I thought, surely there is a way that technology can help us.”
Manning is now a doctoral candidate in information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies how AI and grief intersect. His focus: what some in the field are calling “generative ghosts” — AI chatbots that simulate a dead person so family and friends can continue interacting with them after death.
“It is definitely a growing sector,” Manning said. “We’re seeing growth in interest in how AI and grief intertwine.”
The Startup Landscape
Several startups have already entered this space. Re;memory lets users create lifelike avatars of deceased loved ones based on photos and voice recordings, marketing itself as a tool for emotional closure. “By allowing you to interact with a lifelike digital avatar of your loved one, you can find solace in expressing your love and forgiveness, creating a bridge to the cherished moments you hold dear,” the company states on its website. The tool, it says, “allows you to see and hear your parents as they were in their cherished photos, rather than just imagining them.”
Séance AI and You, Only Virtual are also offering similar services. The pricing models vary but are generally affordable enough for mainstream adoption. Re;memory charges $24 per month for individuals to create up to three custom avatars. Séance AI offers animated images of deceased loved ones — capable of smiling, gentle head movements, and speaking in the departed’s voice — for $19.99 per month.
What the Research Shows
In a June paper published by the Association for Computing Machinery, lead researcher Jed Brubaker — an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies socio-technical systems — along with Manning and colleagues, observed how study participants reacted to AI ghosts of people they had lost.
“Participants filled out a simple survey sharing positive memories of a loved one, talking about their upbringing and core traits,” Manning explained. “And they were fascinated by how much an LLM can do with so little information.”
Brubaker noted that even a free ChatGPT account can produce a basic simulation. “You can get a reasonable, although thin representation of a loved one with a single prompt on a free ChatGPT account,” he said. “The same way you might prompt it to say, ‘Talk to me like Shakespeare,’ you can say, ‘Talk to me like my grandfather — here are some details about how he acted.'”
Two Categories of Digital Remains
Manning identifies two basic types of generative ghosts. The first is a simple “death bot” — limited to playing back verbatim statements the person recorded while alive, without any ability to simulate their communicative style or generate new responses.
The second category goes much further. True generative ghosts recreate the deceased’s voice and manner of communication, offering real-time interaction with the living. They can even respond to questions the deceased never answered in life.
“They are capable of saying things a loved one might not have said,” Manning said. “Ghosts are AI models that can talk for somebody, maybe answering a question that they didn’t answer when they were alive.”
The Uncanny Valley of Affection
The researchers uncovered some telling preferences among study participants. People generally preferred communicating with an AI ghost in the first person — the chatbot serving as a direct reincarnation rather than an avatar speaking about the deceased in the third person.
But the tolerance for imperfection was notably low. If a bot used a term of endearment — “champ” or “pal” — that the real person never used, participants wanted to end the interaction immediately. This suggests that while people are open to AI-mediated grief experiences, the illusion is fragile. A single wrong word can shatter it.
Not a Deepfake — But the Line Is Thin
Generative ghosts share technical DNA with deepfakes, which fabricate public figures’ speech and actions to mislead audiences. Brubaker, however, draws a clear ethical distinction based on intent.
“The fundamental premise of a deep fake is the intent to deceive,” Brubaker said. “The intent of generative ghosts is not to deceive another person.”
That distinction matters legally and ethically, but it may not fully resolve the concerns. The same underlying technology — voice cloning, facial animation, LLM-based text generation — powers both applications. As these tools become cheaper and more accessible, the question of who controls a person’s digital likeness after death, and what constitutes consent, will only grow more urgent.
Looking Ahead
The generative ghost market is still in its early stages, but the convergence of grief, AI, and consumer demand is accelerating. For $20 a month, anyone can already create a speaking, smiling avatar of a deceased parent. As the models improve and the costs drop, the line between memorial and simulation will blur further.
Manning’s research suggests people are curious, sometimes moved, and quick to reject what doesn’t feel authentic. The technology can do a lot with a little — but it can also get a lot wrong. Whether society develops the norms, legal frameworks, and emotional literacy to handle AI ghosts responsibly remains an open question. What’s clear is that the conversation is no longer hypothetical. The dead are already talking back — and we’re only beginning to understand what that means.