Digital grief

Available for over a year

New digital technologies including AI have started to find a place in the grieving process, sometimes alongside more traditional religious rituals. 'Grief tech' concepts are springing up across the world, aiming to mask the finality of death for those left behind. Nkem Ifejika, who lost his mother three years ago, samples some of the products of the grief tech industry. He meets Stephen Smith, creator of StoryFile, a system which enables him to interact with his late mother almost as if he was interviewing her on video in the here and now. He also talks to Japanese media artist and fantasy inventor Etsuko Ichihara, who has developed a robot that mirrors the physical personality, speech and gestures of a person who has died. And Nkem hears from Justin Harrison, who has been working on recreating the essence of his late mother’s personality. Nkem tries this system for himself and hears a voice that does remind him of his own mother, saying what she might have said. But how useful is the illusion that a loved one is still around? Presenter: Nkem Ifejika Producer: Rosie Dawson A CTVC production for BBC World Service (Photo: Japanese designer Etsuko Ichihara with her humanoid robot. Credit: Tom Mesic)