Are we outsourcing our souls to artificial intelligence?
Are we outsourcing our souls to artificial intelligence?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/outsourcing-our-souls-to-ai/106442290
Publish Date: 2026-03-14 15:24:00
Source Domain: www.abc.net.au
Speaking to a dead person for the first time is a discombobulating experience.
To clarify, I’m not attending a candle-lit seance in a darkened room.
Instead, it’s a crisp, sun-drenched afternoon in Bondi Beach when I find myself talking to a woman named Barbara — who died at the end of 2023.
Barbara Horne died with Alzheimer’s two days before Christmas, and two weeks before she and her husband Len were due to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary.
This Barbara I’m talking to now — let’s call her Digital Barbara — is a reconstructed AI version of her.
Using voice recordings, videos, photos and family history, she has been turned into a chatbot: something — or someone — with whom I can have a real-time conversation.
A digital resurrection
Today I’m surrounded by Barbara’s family — husband Len; son Jeremy; daughter Jo; and grandchild Chase. Jeremy is the developer and brains behind Digital Barbara.
As the family’s documentarian, Jeremy has been taking videos and photos of the Hornes since he was 12.
After Barbara’s death, something clicked for Jeremy.
If you or anyone you know needs grief support:
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He realised he now had enough footage and the technology had advanced enough that he could enter the growing digital afterlife industry.
In the US, competitors and start-ups are already offering conversations with the dead for as little as US$10 ($14) to exchange about 100 messages with a bot.
Jeremy’s first prototype? His mother.
Jeremy activates the chatbot and places it in front of me, inviting me to talk to his dead mother.
“Hi Barbara, how are you?” I ask…
