EXCLUSIVE: I tested an AI ‘digital afterlife’ service so my clone can live on after death

When I spoke into my phone, my face appeared on the screen, and I said, “Hi, my name is Robert, and I’m looking forward to telling you about my life.”

I was talking to my AI avatar, which is designed to allow people to “live on” after death so their relatives can talk to them and learn about their lives.

My wife’s reaction to my AI clone was absolute horror, simply saying, “Oh my God, why?”

The cloning comes courtesy of a “digital afterlife” service, Hereafter.AI, which is part of a wave of AI-powered “griefing technology.” Created by programmer James Vlahos after his father’s death cancer In 2016.

AI experts who spoke to DailyMail.com believe AI robots to ‘simulate’ loved ones will grow in sophistication in the coming years so that people can ‘live on’ after death – and 3D holograms could even come to life for Christmas dinner.

Talking to myself has never been more surreal (Image; Rob Waugh)

The service creates a ‘legacy avatar’ that can persist after you die (Rob Waugh/Afterlife)

Vlahos programmed the ‘Dadbot’ while his father was still alive, to record his answers to questions – and the Hereafter service now uses artificial intelligence to facilitate the interaction.

The app now promises your stories and your voice. Forever.’

Hereafter’s custom chatbot has my image: You talk to it by pressing a button on the screen, and the image pulsates before responding, like a digital Ouija board.

The first time you hear your voice coming off the screen, it’s pretty annoying, and I can imagine it would be even more so if it was a deceased relative.

But the service is quite impressive: the AI ​​allows you to talk very naturally with the “dead” person and guides you to anecdotes that the person has previously recorded about his parents, hobbies, etc.

The process begins by extensively interviewing you about your life, with automated prompts that slowly “fill in” the details (asking you questions about siblings, for example, and memorable vacations), and then the AI ​​does the rest.

It feels very natural to chat with him, and because the topics the app asks you about tend to be emotional, talking to him involves a lot of honesty that you don’t generally get from talking to real people.

There’s a big, glaring problem with the service: it costs $3.99 a month to access the basic version and $7.99 for the full version.

In other words, your deceased relatives can “live on” as long as you continue to pay.

How could artificial intelligence mean that relatives can attend Christmas dinner even after death?

Advances in artificial intelligence could mean 3D images of deceased relatives appearing at Christmas dinner (Midjourney/Rob Waugh)

Dillon Solanke, founder of personal podcast platform Story Locker, comments: “Advancements in artificial intelligence have put us on the brink of a new frontier in how we preserve – or even extend – our legacy after we die.

“The demand for a digital afterlife is likely to go hand in hand with the growing pursuit of life-extension and anti-aging technologies, ensuring that people have at least three points and that their voice and image are ‘preserved’ and available to their relatives.”

“While a service like HereAfter works by using and storing information entered by a user while they are alive, in the future, just a few snippets of old recordings in a chatbot could be enough for large language models to simulate entire conversations with those who have died.” – Or maybe even recreate our personalities after we’re gone.

“Armed by the extraordinary visual capabilities of artificial intelligence, as we have seen with the rise of fake videos, there could be the potential to create 3D avatars of long-lost family members, filling empty chairs around the Christmas dinner table.

“However, we should not forget the tools available to us to record special moments or the life story of a loved one here and now. Legacy AI tools cannot become a backup or an excuse for neglecting to seize the moment.

It is also clear that the personal and ethical implications posed by these innovations will be huge. They are likely to place greater scrutiny on the narrow boundaries between human and machine.

“Nothing is more valuable than our memories and human relationships, and we must consider whether using artificial intelligence to restore our loved ones’ souls is a Pandora’s box that we should not open.”