In the second season’s premiere of Black Mirror, a character creates an android from her deceased boyfriend’s online data. This bleak tale underscores a disturbing future where AI convincingly mimics those we’ve lost, thanks to extensive data mining by corporations.

Meta has patented a method to allow users to maintain their online presence even after they are gone—effectively enabling a social media profile to remain active post-mortem. The patent suggests that a user could continuously interact on platforms, responding to messages and liking posts, despite being deceased.

As stated in the patent, “A user may be absent from the social networking platform for a long period of time… This affects the user experience of several users on the social networking system.” The goal is to mitigate user experience disturbances caused by the absence of friends and family on social networks.

Critics question the morality of an AI that embodies someone’s persona indefinitely, emphasizing its underlying implications—like, for instance, chilling interactions where an AI responds to loved ones as if the user were still alive. Meta claims there are no plans to pursue this patent, but the very idea trails a line of ethical concerns regarding digital immortality.

In light of these developments, voices in the tech industry express troubling dynamics about AI’s growing capability and where it can lead us. With increasing scrutiny over AI-driven practices, public acceptance seems dwindling.