All Narratives (356)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 15 min
- Splinter
- 2015
Intellitar marketed its service as a form of digital immortality. For a monthly fee of $25, clients could upload personal data, including voice recordings and photographs, to build a lifelike digital version of themselves. The company claimed to have attracted around 10,000 customers. However, despite its ambitious vision, Intellitar ceased operations, leaving its clients without access to their digital counterparts.
- Splinter
- 2015
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- 15 min
- Splinter
- 2015
This Startup Promised 10,000 People Eternal Digital Life – Then it Died.
Intellitar marketed its service as a form of digital immortality. For a monthly fee of $25, clients could upload personal data, including voice recordings and photographs, to build a lifelike digital version of themselves. The company claimed to have attracted around 10,000 customers. However, despite its ambitious vision, Intellitar ceased operations, leaving its clients without access to their digital counterparts.
- Identify the stakeholders in a situation where a company offering digital immortality services goes bust.
- In what ways are digital remains similar or different to physical remains and memorials? How might we preserve our digital selves in more permanent ways to avoid start-up failures like this one?
- Is this type of service something you could imagine using yourself or for a loved one?
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- 20 min
- Business Insider
- 2018
The founders of Eternime (Marius Ursache) and Replika AI (Eugenia Kryuva) digitally recreated their friends, and as a result, founded their companies in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The goal for Eternime is to have enough data for an individual to create a digital avatar once the technology becomes available. Replika is the closest competitor. The article explores the technical and ethical challenges of developing chatbots on a commercial scale. E.g., what age should the user be immortalized? Or how can we prevent the chatbot from revealing information that the deceased would otherwise not reveal to someone?
- Business Insider
- 2018
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- 20 min
- Business Insider
- 2018
2 Tech Founders Lose their Friends and Decide to Bring Them Back
The founders of Eternime (Marius Ursache) and Replika AI (Eugenia Kryuva) digitally recreated their friends, and as a result, founded their companies in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The goal for Eternime is to have enough data for an individual to create a digital avatar once the technology becomes available. Replika is the closest competitor. The article explores the technical and ethical challenges of developing chatbots on a commercial scale. E.g., what age should the user be immortalized? Or how can we prevent the chatbot from revealing information that the deceased would otherwise not reveal to someone?
- What other ethical problems arise with the commercial production of chatbots?
- Given the tools, would you prefer making your own digital immortal representation or trusting a company to do it?
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- 5 min
- Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference
- 2024
Provides an empirical analysis of content moderation practices across major social media platforms within the European Union (EU), utilizing data from the Digital Services Act (DSA) Transparency Database.
- Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference
- 2024
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- 5 min
- Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference
- 2024
Content Moderation on Social Media in the EU
Provides an empirical analysis of content moderation practices across major social media platforms within the European Union (EU), utilizing data from the Digital Services Act (DSA) Transparency Database.
- What is the distinction between the moderation of content and censorship?
- How would you define effective content moderation? What has shaped your views on this over the last five years?
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- 125 min
- International Journal of Law and Information Technology
- 2021
Argues that the posthumous digital presence of individuals—such as AI-generated simulations, voice clones, and griefbots—deserves legal and ethical protections, even after a person has died. The author proposes the concept of “digital souls” to encapsulate the idea that a person’s data, personality emulations, and AI-generated likenesses should be treated with dignity and moral consideration, not just as property or public content.
- International Journal of Law and Information Technology
- 2021
Digital Remains: Property or Privacy?
Argues that the posthumous digital presence of individuals—such as AI-generated simulations, voice clones, and griefbots—deserves legal and ethical protections, even after a person has died. The author proposes the concept of “digital souls” to encapsulate the idea that a person’s data, personality emulations, and AI-generated likenesses should be treated with dignity and moral consideration, not just as property or public content.
- Discuss the posthumous data rights in different regions as covered in this paper.
- Brainstorm possible regulations to combat some of the issues raised in the article and create a policy to address one of them based on similar policies found in the physical world.
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- 10 min
- Computers in Human Behavior
- 2021
The authors propose cyberthanatology as a framework to understand how digital technologies mediate experiences of death and mourning. They argue that online platforms have transformed traditional practices by enabling new forms of memorialization, such as virtual cemeteries and online grief communities. The paper emphasizes that these digital practices are not merely extensions of physical rituals but constitute new cultural forms that influence how societies perceive and cope with death.
- Computers in Human Behavior
- 2021
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- 10 min
- Computers in Human Behavior
- 2021
Cyberthanathology: Death and beyond in the digital age.
The authors propose cyberthanatology as a framework to understand how digital technologies mediate experiences of death and mourning. They argue that online platforms have transformed traditional practices by enabling new forms of memorialization, such as virtual cemeteries and online grief communities. The paper emphasizes that these digital practices are not merely extensions of physical rituals but constitute new cultural forms that influence how societies perceive and cope with death.
- What is cyberthanatology, and how does it differ from traditional thanatology?
- How can regulations address the challenges posed by digital inequality in memorialization practices?
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- 5 min
- MIT Technology Review
- 2020
This article details the reactions to the deepfake documentary In the event of moon disaster.
- MIT Technology Review
- 2020
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- 5 min
- MIT Technology Review
- 2020
Inside the strange new world of being a deepfake actor
This article details the reactions to the deepfake documentary In the event of moon disaster.