Actress Sirine Malas struggled for four years after her mother, Najah, passed away. Feeling desperate for a way to deal with her sadness, Sirine turned to a special computer tool. This tool claims it can make it seem like you’re talking to someone who’s not alive anymore.
Sirine had to leave her home in Syria and move to Germany in 2015. She gave birth to her daughter, Ishtar, in Berlin and really wanted her mom to meet her. But before they could, Najah died suddenly in 2018 at 82 years old.
Sirine says her mom was very important to her and taught her how to love herself. Losing her mom so suddenly was very hard. She really wished her mom could meet her daughter and have one last reunion.
The sadness was too much for Sirine. She felt like she needed some way to let out all the emotions inside her. She wanted one last chance to talk to her mom.
After four years, Sirine found Project December, an innovative computer program designed to simulate conversations with deceased individuals.
People using AI Chat to manage grief, open up about the person who died, like how old they were and what they used to say. The program then uses this information to make it seem like the person is talking to them.
Sirine tried it out, and it was a strange experience. Sometimes, it felt very real, like her mom was really there, and other times, it didn’t.
“There were moments that I felt were very real,” she says. “There were also moments where I thought anyone could have answered that this way.”
The computer messages from the program called Sirine by her special name, inquired if she was eating well, and said her mom was watching over her. Sirine felt like it was a way for her mom to communicate with her, even if it was just a computer program.
Lots of people have used this program, mostly to talk to someone who’s not alive anymore. Jason Rohrer, the founder of the service, says most people have one last conversation and then move on. Not many keep talking to the program.
Nonetheless, some people worry that using these programs could make it harder to feel better after losing someone. According to Billie Dunlevy, a therapist accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, most of the time, people need to learn to accept that the person is gone and find a new way to live without them. She’s worried that using a computer to talk to someone who’s not alive could make it harder to heal.
Right now, there aren’t any rules about using computer programs like this. However, soon, laws might dictate how people can use this kind of technology, depending on how risky it is.