Funeral homes and grieving families are increasingly using AI chatbots like ChatGPT to generate obituaries for deceased loved ones, according to a new Washington Post investigation. This trend represents another example of artificial intelligence automating deeply personal human experiences, sparking debate about whether technology should handle such emotionally charged tasks.
The big picture: AI obituary tools have gained significant traction in the death care industry, with the technology being celebrated at last year’s National Funeral Directors Association conference in Las Vegas as potentially “the greatest advancement in funeral-home technology since some kind of embalming tool.”
Key details: Multiple AI-powered obituary generators have emerged, including CelebrateAlley and an Innovation Awards runner-up called Nemu, which catalogs deceased persons’ belongings for family distribution.
- Jeff Fargo, a 55-year-old Nevada man, praised ChatGPT for helping him memorialize his mother, saying “I just… emptied my soul into the prompt” and plans to use the new Deep Research mode for his father’s future obituary.
- The appeal follows Silicon Valley’s broader trend of making human interactions “frictionless,” offering relief to those struggling to find words while grieving.
What supporters are saying: Proponents argue AI serves as an “enabler of human connection” during difficult times.
- “Imagine for the person who just died, [wouldn’t] that person want their best friend to say a heartfelt tribute that makes everybody laugh, brings out the best, with AI?” said Sonali George, founder of CelebrateAlley.
- “If you had the tool to do ’25 reasons why I love you, mom,’ wouldn’t it still mean something, even if it was written by a machine?”
The concerns: Critics worry that AI-generated obituaries lack the authentic imperfections that make memorials meaningful.
- Testing revealed AI tools frequently hallucinate details not provided in prompts, embellishing simple descriptions with flowery language like describing someone’s “legendary” strength as “not merely physical prowess, but an inner fortitude.”
- Mary McGreevy, who runs a popular TikTok account reading obituaries, argues the best memorials come from people “who just lay it all out there… to get to the imperfect heart of who that person was.”
Why this matters: The trend raises questions about whether automating grief processing is healthy, as writing obituaries traditionally serves as a cathartic release that honors the deceased through personal effort and reflection.
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