Interaction Design

What if the personality of your loved ones could be preserved forever, to be summoned at any moment for advice or comfort after death? What if you could stave off death yourself and continue to exist in some digital likeness indefinitely? Recently, a number of businesses have begun offering precisely this service in the form of deep-faked video and LLM-powered chatbots based on the personal data of the deceased. Several questions arise concerning the psychological consequences of these activities, but they also bring new immediacy to old ethical questions, cautionary tales, and thought experiments.

In the module AI / Robotics, the students explored the topic of life after death through technological means. The students developed LLM-based personas of deceased individuals and gave these entities an embodiment in technological objects. These provocative protototypes (provotypes) provide a critical entry point for exploring the psychological, societal and spiritual impact of the burgeoning and highly problematic digital-afterlife industry.

Lecturers: Luke Franzke and Paulina Zybinska