Overview:
CU Boulder researchers are studying “generative ghosts,” AI tools that simulate conversations with deceased loved ones.
After Jack Manning’s sister died in 2012, his family spent years building a memorial at the summer camp where they grew up. The experience left him wondering whether technology could help families preserve memories of loved ones in a meaningful way.
“I kept thinking there has to be some way technology can help people remember those they lost,” Manning said.
That question eventually became the foundation of Manning’s research at the University of Colorado Boulder. Manning and other researchers in CU Boulder’s Identity Lab, which studies how identity is designed, represented and experienced in technology, are investigating whether artificial intelligence could one day be used for grief support.
The study examined how participants responded to “generative ghosts,” AI systems that simulate conversations with deceased loved ones. The researchers wanted to better understand how conversational technology might shape grief, memory and the emotional bonds people maintain after death.
“The relationship you had with the person that is dead might impact your preferences and what you want out of the conversation,” said Jed Brubaker, an associate professor of information science at CU Boulder and a member of the university’s Identity Lab research team, “and even how the conversation goes.”
One of the study’s biggest findings surprised the research team.
Before the trial, researchers expected participants to focus on factual errors or AI hallucinations. Because the AI models were created using limited information about each loved one, the team thought participants would quickly notice incorrect details.
Instead, participants focused more on whether the AI reflected the relationship they remembered.
“The thing that our participants really cared about had very little to do with factual accuracy or getting things right,” Manning said. “Instead, they cared about how well the ghost mimicked their relationship and communication.”
Participants noticed small details, including communication styles, familiar nicknames and specific words or phrases. Those characteristics often mattered more than whether the AI correctly remembered someone’s occupation, hobbies or other biographical facts.
Researchers said the findings suggest that preserving the feeling of a relationship may matter more than perfectly recreating the facts of a person’s life.
“We found that generative ghosts can’t and shouldn’t replicate a person,” Manning said. “They should replicate a relationship.”
Because the study involved people who had lost loved ones, the team built multiple safeguards into the project.
The study was conducted over Zoom with a participant, a researcher and the AI system. Two researchers attended each interview, with one conducting the conversation while another reviewed every AI-generated response before it reached the participant. The AI model is not publicly available, allowing the team to monitor privacy and minimize potential harm.
“This is not a replacement or alternative for being a new form of therapy based on everything we’ve seen so far,” Brubake said. “The generative ghosts are more similar to how one might think about scrapbooks or a letter you might write to a deceased loved one.”
Participants were unable to be interviewed due to the study’s privacy policies. According to the researchers, many participants said they would use the technology again, but were concerned about family members using it.
The ethical questions surrounding generative ghosts are now the focus of additional research by Dylan Doyle, a former CU Boulder researcher and current postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University.
Doyle is interviewing therapists, grief counselors and other mental health professionals to better understand how AI could affect people coping with loss.
“I do think there is genuine therapeutic potential,” Doyle said. “I’m just not sure yet if it outweighs the harm.”
One concern Doyle hears from clinicians is about “continuing bonds,” a psychological concept that describes the ongoing connection people have with loved ones after death. While keeping a loving memory of someone you cared about that passed is good, the AI conversations could make it harder for some people to process grief.
Rather than replacing counseling, Doyle said AI could eventually become another tool used alongside mental health professionals.
“I see this more like letter writing,” Doyle said. “Something that could help people process grief when it’s used thoroughly and with appropriate guidance.”
Researchers emphasized that the technology remains in its early stages and cautioned against sensational portrayals of AI bringing people back from the dead.
“I’d like to stress that this technology is actually very ordinary,” Doyle said. “It’s a chatbot at its core. It can be used in helpful or harmful ways, just like any other AI model.”
For Manning, the research remains rooted in the same question that inspired him after losing his sister: whether technology can help people honor the relationships they have lost without replacing the human experiences that made those relationships meaningful.
“I think there’s a lot of promise here,” Manning said. “It’s something we still don’t know enough about, and we need to study it more.”
