The disruption of grief in the technological niche: The case of deathbots

Abstract

Recently, philosophical research on grief and the impact of technological resources on its structure and quality has gained momentum. Deathbots, chatbots based on generative Large Language Models that imitate the conversational behaviour of deceased persons, are technological resources that have received wide-spread attention in this context. While some philosophers have argued that deathbots can negatively impact grief experiences, and so the well-being of grieving agents, the details of this potential negative impact have remained largely unspecified. To close this gap, this article develops an account that integrates research on grief experiences, deathbots, negative niche construction, and well-being. According to this account, it is possible that human-deathbot interactions can disrupt the temporal dynamics of grief. The key claim is that this potential disruption can occur because deathbots can induce a conflict between the presentification of the dead on a synchronic, microgenetic scale and the recurrent temporalities of grief on a diachronic, ontogenetic scale. This disruptive potential of human-deathbot interactions can have implications for the well-being of grieving agents.