Digital immortality: an honest overview

People search for "digital immortality" when they want to keep someone: a parent, a grandparent, themselves. This page gathers what we know about what is actually possible, without the hype.

What the term means

Digital immortality usually means keeping a record of a person rich enough that others can still interact with it after they die: their stories, their way of talking, sometimes their voice. It does not mean a person living on, and no technology can do that. More in what is digital immortality?

Is it possible?

Not as a continuation of a person. But AI can now learn a great deal of how someone expressed themselves from their own words and recordings, and answer new questions in their style. It only knows what it was told, it can be wrong, and it is not aware. More in is digital immortality possible?

Digital legacy and interactive memory

A digital legacy is what you leave and who controls it: accounts, files, photos. Interactive memory is about still being able to ask. Most families need both. More in digital immortality vs digital legacy.

Can AI keep a personality?

The part that lives in words, stories, opinions and voice, yes, to a meaningful degree. The person themselves, no. Why it can feel so convincing, and how to use it well: can AI preserve a human personality?

Ethics

Consent (especially for a voice), honesty about what a copy is, control that stays with the person and the people they choose, no training of public models, easy download and deletion, and design for remembering rather than engagement. More in the ethics of AI copies of loved ones.

Kinds of apps

Story books, recorded video interviews, conversational AI copies, voice tools and digital legacy services each keep a different part of a person. How to choose: apps for keeping a loved one's stories and voice.

Where to start

The most valuable thing you can do does not need any technology: ask the people you love about their lives, now, and record the answers. Our guides help:

• 100 questions to ask your parents before it's too late
• How to save a parent's voice
• How to preserve family stories

OtherMy is our answer to this: an iPhone app where you and your family build a copy of yourself or of a parent from answers, memories, recordings and chats, and talk with it later. We don't call it immortality. We call it keeping their voice and their stories, while you can still ask.