A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder confirms something that sounds both impressive and concerning. People find interacting with AI simulations of their dead loved ones deeply meaningful, and most will come away wanting to do it again.
The researchers call it a “generative ghost,” which is a clear reference to generative AI, but I’d still prefer to call it unsettling.
So what did the study actually find?
Doctoral candidate Jack Manning and associate professor Jed Brubaker recruited 16 participants aged 22 to 50, all of whom had lost someone close to them.
During individual Zoom sessions, a second researcher quietly used an LLM to build a ghost of the deceased (in real time) from details provided by the participant, an AI-based reincarnation, if you will.
Each participant chatted with two versions of the generative ghost: one that spoke in first person (“I remember going to the beach together”) and one that used third person (“She loved going to the beach with you,” where you is the participant).
Participants unanimously preferred the first-person “reincarnation” over the third-person “representative,” which, I’ll admit, is the part I find most unsettling.
So who is building these, and why does it matter?
Small factual inaccuracies were forgiven during the interaction. However, wrong terms of endearment were not. For instance, when one stepfather’s ghost called his stepson “champ,” a word he’d never used, the participant nearly ended the session.
This is the first user experience research on AI ghosts, published by the Association for Computing Machinery (via CU Boulder). And if you don’t already know, commercial services like Project December and HereAfterAI are already selling AI ghosts as a product.
The study’s own participants flagged a significant concern. While everyone said they’d use a ghost again, almost all worried people who’ve lost their loved ones would become addicted to one. The lab has already initiated a follow-up study with mental health professionals to assess the psychological benefits and risks of generative ghost interactions.