• 
• 50 min
• Science and Engineering Ethics
• 2022
• 
• 

The Ethics of ‘Deathbots’

Lindemann identifies grief bots as techno-social niches that change the affective emotional state of the user. With a focus on the dignity of the bereaved rather than the deceased, Lindemann argues that grief bots can both regulate and deregulate users’ emotions. Referring to them as pseudo-bonds, Lindemann does a very good job of trying to characterize a standard relationship with a grief bot. This article is mostly about the grief and well-being of users of griefbots.

• Digital Immortality
• Natural Language Interfaces
• Internet of Things

• 
• 45 min
• The Interational Journal of Psychoanalysis
• 2024
• 
• 

Mourning, melancholia and machines: An applied psychoanalytic investigation of mourning in the age of griefbots

Because the technology simulates sentience, it removes the ethical imperative of considering the deceased as an irreducible other, fostering attachments that may displace living relationships and misrepresent the dead. While the author concedes that tightly regulated, consent-based applications (e.g., helping a child imagine a deceased parent) might offer therapeutic value, the prevailing danger is that griefbots short-circuit the lifelong, relational work of mourning. Psychoanalysis, the article concludes, must scrutinize these “post-human” tools to preserve an ethics of otherness in a culture increasingly tempted to outsource grief to machines.

• Digital Immortality
• Natural Language Interfaces

• 
• 10 min
• Daily Mail
• 2024
• 
• 

Think twice before using AI to digitally resurrect a dead loved one: So-called ‘griefbots’ could HAUNT you, Cambridge scientists warn

Cites a study from Cambridge University that discusses potential ways in which grief bots may be exploitative. It establishes that grief bots influence you because they establish a connection through the identity and reputation of a loved one and then impact a user’s decisions. Although the article accepts that a grief bot may be therapeutic in some cases, users may be coerced into buying something by the grief bot. The grief bot can become confused with its role, for example, if a terminally ill woman leaves a grief bot for her child, the bot might depict an impending in-person encounter with the child. The third scenario in the article is one of a dying parent secretly subscribing to a grief bot service before his death, and the maintenance of the grief bot becomes intense emotional labour for the children of the deceased.

• Digital Immortality
• Malware

• 
• 15 min
• 2024
• 
• 

The false promise of keeping a loved one “alive” with A.I. grief bots.

In this piece, Leong—a Catholic attorney and theology graduate student—explores the ethical, spiritual, and emotional implications of “grief tech,” particularly AI-powered “ghostbots” that simulate conversations with deceased loved ones. She critiques this technology through a Christian theological lens, drawing on thinkers like Karl Rahner and Tina Beattie to argue that such digital recreations undermine the embodied nature of human personhood and the Christian understanding of death.

• Digital Immortality
• Natural Language Interfaces

• 
• 10 min
• Rest of World
• 2024
• 
• 

AI “deathbots” are helping people in China grieve

This article provides an overview of griefbot culture in China. Users there, according to this article, are very satisfied with the experiences they are having with the griefbots of their loved ones.

• Digital Immortality
• AI
• Natural Language Interfaces

• 
• 5 min
• Wired
• 2021
• 
• 

How to Reduce Motion Sickness in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) can cause nausea among many physical ailments whilst immersed in the digital world. This article explores some tactics to combat this nausea and why it might happen.

• Assistive Technologies
• Technology Based Entertainment and Leisure
• Workplace Safety
• Virtual Reality

• 
• 35 min
• Submitted to AIES '25
• 
• 

Wanted Dead or Alive

Critically examines emerging technologies that enable digital immortality—the preservation and simulated interaction with the dead through AI-generated chatbots, deepfakes, or virtual avatars using personal data. The paper argues that these technologies represent a form of techno-solutionism, providing artificial remedies for the complex human experience of grief. The authors warn that digital immortality platforms—marketed by startups like HereAfter AI, Eter9, and others—pose psychological, ethical, legal, and environmental risks, especially to vulnerable grieving individuals.

• Digital Immortality
• AI
• Big Data
• Internet and Social Media

• 
• 90 min
• Minds and Machines
• 2017
• 
• 

The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry

Öhman and Floridi introduce the concept of the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI), encompassing businesses and platforms that manage, monetize, or manipulate the digital remains of deceased individuals. This includes services like memorial pages, AI-generated avatars, and posthumous social media management.

The authors argue that the DAI operates within a framework of informational capitalism, where personal data, even after death, is commodified. They highlight ethical concerns about how these practices can infringe upon human dignity, especially when the deceased’s digital presence is altered or used without consent.

To address these issues, the paper suggests that ethical guidelines governing the treatment of physical human remains could serve as a model for regulating digital remains, ensuring respect and dignity for the deceased in the digital realm.

• Digital Immortality
• AI

• 
• 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.

• Digital Immortality
• AI
• Natural Language Interfaces
• Internet of Things

• 
• 125 min
• 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.

• Digital Immortality
• AI
• Big Data

• 
• 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.

• Predictive Policing
• Content Moderation
• Internet and Social Media

• 
• 20 min
• AI & Society
• 2022
• 
• 

Using Deceased People’s Data

A high-level breakdown of popular ethical and legal considerations regarding postmortem data use. It aims to discern the extent to which users are comfortable with their data being used posthumously. Important findings include most users wanting their data automatically deleted after their death. A majority of users find that using their data in passive ways is acceptable, and there is a higher degree of tolerance among younger and heavy internet users when it comes to how their data is used.

• Digital Immortality
• AI
• Internet and Social Media