UvA | November 15th, 2023

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This combined session between ARIAS research groups Care Ecologies and Artificial Worlds explored grief bots through notions of errors and glitches. Through a short lecture and collective speculation, the group examined different methodologies for interrogation on the digital afterlife. 

Products such as ‘grief bots’ are stirring up a debate about machine learning’s place in death and spiritual rituals. In principle, grief bots allow a person to chat and interact with a system that has learned the speech patterns and behaviours of someone who has died. 

This workshop asked, where do grief bots stand concerning current notions of grief? How is machine learning enabling pathways between presence and absence? What happens with these ‘ghosts’ when we no longer need them? Could grief-bots become corrupted? What would corruption or malfunction look like? Grief bots will likely be services managed by for-profit companies. May they become distorted by advertisements fed to us through them?