AI 'deadbots' are persuasive – and researchers say, primed for monetization

4 iamben 3 8/27/2025, 9:25:56 AM npr.org ↗

Comments (3)

kleiba · 6h ago
> [A] bearded AI avatar of Chris Pelkey, the deceased victim of a road rage incident in Arizona, gave a video impact statement at the sentencing of the man who fatally shot Pelkey. Pelkey's family created the deadbot. "I feel that that was genuine," said Judge Todd Lang after hearing the AI generated impact statement. He then handed down the maximum sentence.

This is nuts!

xnorswap · 5h ago
Some consequences of this was explored over 12 years ago in season 2 of Black Mirror, episode 1: "Be Right Back": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Right_Back

I recently re-watched and it's held up very well.

A core theme was how the AI was trained on the public output which is very polished, so the companion didn't match well with the experience of those closest to them, representing instead the polished facsimile that gets put out onto social media.

quantified · 5h ago
Inserted advertising will go the direction of product placement. Grandma will be touting dish soap that didn't exist while she was alive.