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News

News: December 2023 / January 2024

A new (and problematic) use for chatbots • Monkey business with stem cells • Consciousness: Koch loses bet to Chalmers — News reports by Anja Steinbauer

AI for Grief

The rise of chatbots such as ChatGPT, has fuelled the development of an unusual application: ‘grief tech’. When conversational AI specialist James Vlahos’ father was dying from cancer in 2016, he compiled as many memories as he could and created the ‘Dadbot’. Emulating features of Vlahos’ father, the Dadbot could interact by text, audio, images and video. Building on his own experience of feeling comforted by the Dadbot, Vlahos started HereAfter AI, a company in the US that facilitates for people to upload memories, creating a ‘life story avatar’ with which family and friends can interact. Or as their website puts it, “Preserve memories with an app that interviews you about your life.

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