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In the NoCo
In The NoCo

Can new technology reconnect us with a dead loved one? Meet CU鈥檚 鈥榞enerative ghosts鈥� expert

By In The NoCo,
Ariel Lavery, Brad Turner
Published November 22, 2024 at 8:57 AM MST
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Jed Brubaker is Associate Professor in Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Courtesy Jed Brubaker
Jed Brubaker has been researching how generative AI could transform the way we relate to past loved ones. He calls generative AI that could recreate a deceased person "generative ghosts." And he says they could have a lot to offer us.

In 2024, chatbots are part of ordinary life. They pop up on your screen while you鈥檙e checking your bank account or making an online purchase.

But a few years from now it may be just as easy to have a conversation with a chatbot who recreates a dead loved one. That鈥檚 the idea behind a kind of technology called a generative ghost.

Jed Brubaker is associate professor at the University of Colorado and one of the people leading the development of generative ghosts. Jed is part of a team that to study how generative ghosts could become part of our lives.

In the NoCo鈥檚 Brad Turner spoke with Jed about what a visit with the generative ghost of a dead loved one would feel like.

By the way, Jed also leads the 鈥� a free clinic at CU to help people who want to get a deceased loved one鈥檚 digital affairs in order.

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In The NoCo
KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.
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Ariel Lavery
Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.
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Brad Turner
Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.
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