This conference, hosted at the Catholic University of Portugal, but also available through this Zoom link, details the findings from Digital Afterlives: AI, Memory, and Mourning.
Supported with funding from the Notre Dame–IBM Technology Ethics Lab's 2025 Call for Proposals, Digital Afterlives: AI, Memory, and Mourning examines new AI tools—“ghostbots”—that can analyze data from a specific deceased person, like text messages, emails, and videos, to create an interactive digital companion that simulates them. This project considers the reasons behind the rise of ghostbots, the ethical and religious concerns raised by the technology, and the role of grief and mourning in human lives.
Principal investigators are Joseph Davis (University of Virginia), Micah E. Lott (Boston College), and IBM Tech Ethics Lab Program Chair Paul Scherz (Notre Dame). William Hasselberger (Catholic University of Portugal) is an additional member of the team.