Conversations with the dead
Research project: Conversations with the dead
Grief in the digital age: An exploration of griefbots
Welcome
Here you can read about the research project:
“Conversations with the Dead” examines how people who have lost experience interacting with so-called griefbots. A griefbot is an AI-powered chatbot designed to mimic a deceased person’s way of communicating.
The purpose of the project is to generate new knowledge about how this technology affects people in grief, and based on that, develop ethical guidelines for the use of griefbots. These guidelines must account for how griefbots affect the bereaved while ensuring the protection of the deceased's privacy and digital legacy.
Background
Digital technologies play an increasingly significant role in our lives – including in connection with death and grief. Griefbots represent a new form of technology through which the bereaved can converse with a digital representation of a deceased person based on their digital footprint. This development challenges established understandings of grief. While grief is typically understood as a process in which the bereaved must gradually acknowledge and integrate the loss, griefbots enable a form of continued interaction with the deceased.
The technology can potentially serve as a source of comfort and a perceived sense of presence with the deceased. At the same time, it may affect central aspects of the grieving process, including the acceptance of the death and the adjustment to a life without the deceased.
Furthermore, griefbots raise significant ethical issues. These include questions of consent, the protection of the deceased's privacy and digital legacy, and the risk of individuals in vulnerable situations being inappropriately influenced.
Despite the increasing attention to this field, there remains limited empirical knowledge about how griefbots affect people in grief. Based on the experiences of the bereaved, this project investigates these conditions with a focus on consequences and ethical implications.
The Project Group
The project is led by Laura Skov Illum, Ph.D.-student at the Department of Psychology and affiliated with the Unit for Bereavement Research as well as the Unit for Psychological Research on AI and Social Robots. She collaborates with experienced researchers and psychologists with expertise in both bereavement research and human-technology interaction.
Funding and Collaboration
The project is funded by Aarhus University as part of Laura’s PhD fellowship and is further supported by the Carlsberg Foundation. It is also part of the interdisciplinary research project Tools or Companions? Investigating the Shifting Roles of Artificial Agents in Human Lives, which examines human relationships with artificial agents.
Methods and Ethics
The project is primarily based on qualitative research methods in the form of interviews and ethnographic methods to investigate the experiences of the bereaved when communicating with griefbots. However, quantitative methods are also included to examine, among other things, distribution and prevalence. The project follows strict ethical guidelines, with a focus on anonymity, informed consent, and consideration for both the bereaved and the deceased.