AI advances fuel industry trying to preserve loved ones after death
Generative AI, like ChatGPT, promises progress but poses dangers, experts said. When Justin Harrison suffered a nasty bout of strep throat two weeks ago, he said he received a barrage of text messages from his mom urging him to take better care of himself -- even though his mom is dead. Harrison, who founded an AI company called You, Only Virtual in 2020 that creates chatbots modeled after deceased loved ones, was getting reprimanded by a digital version of his mom in the same way its real-life counterpart would have done so. "I've got a virtual mom talking to me ad nauseam about more rest, asking why I'm not hydrating," Harrison, 40, told ABC News. "I was getting yelled at." Harrison, who has communicated with the digital reproduction of his mom on a daily basis since she died in October at age 61, believes AI-driven chatbots will redefine how some deal with grief. This illustration shows a humanoid robot touching touching data on a screen. Yuichiro Chino/...