Synthetic afterlives: Deathbots as affective infrastructures of memory

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ID: 288804
2025
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Ranked #86 of 1,244 articles by views in ADVANCES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRACTICE

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Abstract
This short research article interrogates the rise of digital platforms that enable ‘synthetic afterlives’, with a focus on how deathbots – AI-driven avatar interactions grounded in personal data and recordings – reshape memory practices. Drawing on socio-technical walkthroughs of four platforms – Almaya, HereAfter, Séance AI, and You, Only Virtual – we analyse how they frame, archive, and algorithmically regenerate memories. Our findings reveal a central tension: between preserving the past as a fixed archive and continually reanimating it through generative AI. Our walkthroughs demonstrate how these services commodify remembrance, reducing memory to consumer-driven interactions designed for affective engagement while obscuring the ethical, epistemological and emotional complexities of digital commemoration. In doing so, they enact reductive forms of memory that are embedded within platform economies and algorithmic imaginaries.
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persistent_1761421612_68fd292ccfb91 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Eva Nieto McAvoy
Journal ADVANCES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRACTICE
Year 2025
DOI
10.1017/mem.2025.10013
URL
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/memory-mind-and-media/article/synthetic-afterlives-deathbots-as-affective-infrastructures-of-memory/1D3C7E664D715A471B7BAE8AE79CC2CF
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