Woman’s AI chat with deceased mother yields eerie, lifelike responses

Sirine Malas, an actress from Syria, discovered a unique approach to coping with the sudden loss of her mother through an AI-driven bot system named Project December, which is designed to “simulate the dead,” as reported by SkyNews. This modern tool provided her with a blend of consolation and unease, often feeling eerily lifelike.

After relocating from Syria to Germany in 2015, Malas faced the sudden death of her mother, Najah, due to kidney failure in 2018 at 82, before her daughter Ischtar could meet her grandmother. Overwhelmed by grief, Malas sought a final opportunity to communicate with her mother.

Four years post her loss, Malas engaged with Project December. By inputting details about her mother into an online form, the AI, powered by OpenAI’s GPT2, constructed a digital persona of Najah based on the provided information. These models, trained on extensive online texts, mimic human-like responses.

For $10, users like Malas could interact with the chatbot for about an hour, offering a temporary solace. Despite moments of realism, Malas recognized the potential for generic responses. The AI mimicked her mother’s voice, using Malas’s nickname and expressing concern for her well-being in ways that felt profoundly real yet hauntingly artificial.

Project December has garnered over 3,000 users, many seeking to converse with digital versions of deceased loved ones. Jason Rohrer, the creator of the service, notes that users often seek comfort following abrupt losses.

Malas, though finding some closure, advises caution with such tools, highlighting the risk of dependency and disillusionment. She stresses the importance of natural grief processing, suggesting professional help or therapy as healthier alternatives for extreme cases.