The Chief Technology Officer of Meta, Andrew Bosworth, is the main author of this patent, which was first filed in 2023. A company representative told Business Insider: “We do not intend to use this example in the future.” The patent raises important questions about why such technology might be needed by users.
If a person stops posting content online—whether for personal reasons or as a result of death—it creates a gap in the experience of their followers, who may begin to miss them. The document states: “The consequences for users may be more serious and irreversible if the user has died and cannot return to the platform.” To address this, Meta proposes creating a digital copy of your social media presence by training a model on your unique data—such as activity history, comments, and likes—to understand how you might respond.
Thus, this digital clone would be able to interact with content from other users, like posts, leave comments, and respond to messages. For influencers or content creators who make a living on social media and need a break, such technology could be quite useful.
The patent also mentions the possibility of a language model imitating video and audio calls with users. Although Meta files patent applications to disclose ideas, obtaining a patent does not always mean the company intends to develop or implement these technologies.
Nevertheless, this raises many questions about technology and grief. Using artificial intelligence to create a digital double during a temporary break from social media is one aspect, but imitating deceased individuals is entirely different.
Edina Harbinja, a professor at the University of Birmingham specializing in digital rights and posthumous privacy, expresses her concerns. She noted: “This touches on not just legal, but also social, ethical, and philosophical aspects.” Meta has been considering issues of digital legacy for many years.
About ten years ago, Facebook offered tools for appointing a “legacy contact” to manage an account in the event of a user's death. In an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman in 2023, Mark Zuckerberg spoke about virtual avatars of deceased individuals, claiming that communicating with them could help in the grieving process.
For this category of technologies, there are various names—death robots, ghost robots, technologies for overcoming grief—and their goal is to help people cope with the loss of loved ones through digital versions of their personalities.
Several startups, such as Replika, founded by Eugenia Kuyda in 2015 after the loss of a friend, and You, Only Virtual (YOV), founded by Justin Harrison in 2020 after his mother was diagnosed with cancer, were created based on personal experiences of grieving. Harrison notes that technologies in this field are becoming increasingly relevant with the development of generative artificial intelligence.
In 2021, Microsoft also patented a chatbot capable of imitating deceased individuals, indicating that interest in this technology is growing. According to Harbinja, Meta's patent suggests that such a category of technologies is beginning to actively enter the mass market.
Harrison is not surprised that large companies are exploring this area and sees it as evidence that society is becoming more open to discussing such topics. “We can only improve what we offer people,” he added, emphasizing that resources for grieving often prove to be insufficient.
However, the interaction of AI, death, and grief are complex topics. The intersection of these concepts creates a powerful foundation for discussing ethical questions and digital rights at any dinner table.
“Let the dead be dead”
Meta is considering not only providing assistance in overcoming grief but also creating an incentive for the development of the technologies described in the patent, especially for temporarily suspended accounts. “This means more engagement, more content, more data—more data for the present and future AI,” noted Harbinja. She is curious about how and when Meta will implement these innovations.
Depending on how such technology is implemented, various questions may arise. For example, will it apply to all Meta applications? Will the system understand the nuances of your communication on WhatsApp compared to comments on Instagram?
Joseph Davis, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, expressed concern about how tools like Metabot could affect the grieving process. “One of the tasks of grieving is accepting loss,” he emphasized, adding that the idea of bringing the dead back to life, while seemingly appealing, could lead to confusion.
