Technology Impact Cycle Tool

An example: Griefbot

The purpose of the Griefbot is to reduce suffering for relatives or friends of a deceased person. We believe that - especially with tragic and sudden deaths - there is incredible pain by relatives and friends. The Griefbot is an advanced way of looking at photos or listening to that one voicemail. We believe accepting death is easier if you can have a conversation with your deceased loved one. Also the app will connect grandchildren to the grandparents they never knew. The Griefbot partly solves that problem by enabling a conversation with a deceased parent of grandparent.

An example: Griefbot

The app can never replace a real life person. However, the Griefbot does not strive to do that. The purpose of the Griefbot is to ease suffering. We do understand that sometimes it is better to let go or to talk to relatives or friends instead of to a Griefbot. However we think this are choices to be made by the users. We are just offering an extra option to ease suffering. We also try to build a community, so that relatives can help each other and find support with one another. This way the Griefbot also fuels more and better human connection. We understand that sometimes suffering is good and helps. However we think a person that is confronted by a tragic death experiences already has enough pain. Would you say to someone who lost someone that they should not look at photo's? Also, we like to point out that the app is not the right solution for everyone, but it can be a solution for a lot of people.

An example: Griefbot

The quality of the solution is dependent on the quality of the data trail. More data means that the Griefbot will act more like the deceased person. However, the goal of the Griefbot is to ease suffering. Therefore it is enough that the Griefbot reminds someone of the deceased love one. It does not have to be perfect. We use AI to train the Griefbot to act like the deceased based on the data. We know that this works. We have tested it on a lot of users. Based on feedback we are constantly improving the AI. Sometimes it makes a mistake, but this is also good. It is important that sometimes users are remembered that it is not a real person that they are chatting with. As more and more people use our app for longer periods, we believe that the data-input will become better and better. In the future we will have people that talked to our app for decades. Their digital representation, especially as AI also improves, as a Griefbot will be near perfect. We have a lot of users that tell us that the Griefbot eases the suffering. This makes us very happy and we are constantly alert on improving.

An example: Griefbot

Negative effects that we expect and sometimes already have experienced are the following: Some people will get hooked to their Griefbot and have trouble getting back to real life. Some people will get into trouble with their relatives. For example one sister does not want their father to be a Griefbot and the other sister uses it all the time. One day the Griefbot will be too good, so the memory of death person will be replaced by an irrealistic digital version. Maybe the Griefbot will be used in heated arguments. Dad would not have approved this, listen to his Griefbot. Maybe people will think of people not using our app when alive as really, really egoïstic. Maybe in the future it will be frowned upon if you do not use a Griefbot, because you are robbing your lost ones of an opportunity.

An example: Griefbot

Very much. We like to live in a world where technology enables people to freely make choices. If a loved one dies, we believe it is fantastic that you can choose to have a conversation with a Griefbot. If this helps you, we want to help you. You have a lot of people that write their memoires or record videotapes fot their loved ones to be read/seen when they are dead. We are adding another advanced possibility to this. We think death is often random and unfair. We want to live in a world that is a bit more fair and has a bit less suffering. The Griefbot helps with that. If people think a Griefbot is creepy, they can choose not to use it.

An example: Griefbot

People can get hooked to a Griefbot. That is why we allow users to set restrictions and we give them information on usage - time. Also, we believe that the Griefbot should only be used by the people very close to the deceased. That is why we give control to the user of the app (when alive) who can uase it after he/she dies. We also learned that our users need real human connection. That is why we created a community of Griefbot users.