My ARIA research project was supervised by Professor Jocelyn Maclure with the help of his postdoctoral scholar Hugo Cosette-Lefebvre. The original project title was 鈥淎I Agents: a Case Study of Character.AI and the Ethical Implications of Personified AI Chatbots on Wellbeing鈥�. The project primarily focused on a particularly ethically provocative form of personified AI: the griefbot. These are AIs created from the digital traces of the deceased to imitate their behaviour, often with the aim of helping the bereaved navigate their grief. Of the several ethical questions arising from them, the primary question I was researching was whether the consent of the dead is morally required in order to make griefbots. In virtue of this, a more appropriate project title would be 鈥淧ersonified AI and Posthumous Ethics: An Examination of the Ethical Implications of Griefbots鈥�.
I was interested in undertaking an ARIA project because it offered a rare opportunity to gain supervised research experience in philosophy while working on a topic that I find deeply engaging. I was particularly drawn to the program because it allowed me to spend a concentrated period of time developing a research project from the ground up, something that is difficult to achieve within the constraints of a regular semester. The subject I explored, griefbots, has recently emerged as a fascinating and important area of philosophical inquiry, raising complex questions at the intersection of ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of technology.
My main learning objectives were to develop the skills necessary to research and write a substantial philosophy paper, and to do so in a way that connects a contemporary applied ethics issue to broader theoretical debates in other areas of Philosophy such as normative ethics and metaphysics. I sought to better understand how questions about griefbots can shed light on topics such as the metaphysical status of the dead, the nature of consent, and the different possible conceptions of rights. I believe that both the research skills I developed and the subject knowledge I gained will be directly applicable to my long-term goal of pursuing graduate studies in Philosophy.
One of the highlights of my summer was attending the Workshop on the Ethics of Griefbots in June. This event brought together scholars from across Canada to present their latest research on griefbots and related topics. Presentations ranged from psychological perspectives on grief, to recent developments in large language models, to potential uses of AI in clinical psychology. Engaging with experts from different disciplines gave me a broader perspective on the philosophical questions I was investigating and helped me see how my work fits into a larger conversation. I also attended other workshops on griefbots throughout the summer, each of which contributed new insights and ideas for my project.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was narrowing the broad subject of 鈥渆thical implications of griefbots鈥� into something manageable for a paper and poster. Initially, I identified two possible directions: whether consent from the dead is required to create griefbots, and whether using griefbots might constitute a form of self-deception. After discussing both topics with my supervisors, I decided to focus on consent, partly because it provided an opportunity to explore how the metaphysical status of the dead can influence applied ethical reasoning, and seeing the impact of the theoretical on the applied is always interesting.
Another challenge was navigating the large body of literature connected to griefbots, much of which addresses related but not identical topics, such as posthumous harm, postshumous rights, and AI ethics. This could easily have become overwhelming, but attending the ARIA library workshop and learning to use Zotero for reference management helped me organize my sources and streamline the research process.
The financial support I received from the Arts Student Employment Fund (ASEF) was essential in making this project possible. It allowed me to focus entirely on my research throughout the summer without the added pressure of finding other work to cover tuition for the coming academic year. Having that financial stability made it possible to dedicate myself fully to reading, writing, and engaging with the philosophical literature, ultimately resulting in a project I am proud of and skills that will serve me well in the future.
