A newly granted patent to Meta is raising unsettling questions about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital identity.
The company’s developments suggest that social media users could continue posting, commenting, and even interacting with loved ones after death.
The patent was approved in December.
It describes a large language model capable of “simulating the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased.”
In practical terms, the technology would analyze a person’s historical activity, including writing style, tone, beliefs, comments, and interactions.
The AI-powered system would then replicate that individual’s digital presence across the platform.
Meta hopes the technology will allow dead users to continue posting on Instagram and Facebook from beyond the grave.
AI Avatars That Could Keep Posting After Death
Under the proposal, the system could generate new posts or respond to friends in the user’s own voice.
It would effectively create a persistent digital persona that continues operating even after the real person is gone.
The patent goes further, outlining technology that could enable phone or video conversations with an AI-generated version of the deceased.
Meta’s internal rationale, cited in reporting by Business Insider, frames the concept as a response to user absence:
“The impact on the users is much more severe and permanent if that user is deceased and can never return to the social networking platform.”
To address that absence, the company proposes training a model on “user-specific” historical data, including posts, comments, and engagement behavior, to predict how the person would communicate.
The filing was submitted by Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth.
Company Says No Plans, For Now
Despite the patent’s approval, Meta has publicly stated that it does not currently plan to deploy the technology.
Still, the idea of digitally recreating the dead is no longer theoretical.
In 2025, the family of Arizona road-rage victim Christopher Pelkey used an AI-generated video likeness of Pelkey to deliver a courtroom impact statement.
It served as an example that demonstrated how quickly synthetic identity tools are moving from research to real-world use.
Ethical Questions Loom
The prospect of AI-driven “afterlife” accounts raises profound concerns about consent, authenticity, grief, and manipulation in an era where technology is increasingly capable of imitating human identity.
Whether Meta ever launches such a system, the patent signals a broader shift in Silicon Valley thinking.
The boundary between memory and simulation is rapidly disappearing.
And for social media platforms built on constant engagement, even death may no longer mean logging off.
So internett life is going to become even more fake.
My brother died 4 years ago – he had a F/B account that his wife obviously kept an eye on but didn’t comment.
The account is still active so I get told it his birthday every year and to send him congratulations.
There must be a reason why I haven’t deleted it…cannot think why just at the moment.
Death is not nearly as debilitating nor final as it used to be. In the USA you can still vote in elections & now Facebook has usurped the ouija board.
Correction: In the USA
you can still votethe democrat party can vote on your behalf in the elections. Alive, dead, illegal immigrants, people living overseas that aspire to be illegal immigrants, or just people living overseas are all voters according to the democrats.Perhaps all these AI centres are working towards uploading your soul, into virtual reality, commonly known as hell, so that some other being can take over your physical body, enjoying your life, wife, and children.
Posted yesterday, and this shows how New Zealand continues to punch above its weight in the world; even for the ones on “shaky” ground, or shady rest-homes.
Would seem that resurrection is occuring in NZ, when they pop up into the chemist for their meds, as after all it seemed that they had been “hacked to death”.
Some users’ information had been changed, including to say they were deceased.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/587773/patient-data-changed-as-major-nz-health-app-medimap-hacked
All a part of life; to keep on keeping on.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” —– author Mark Twain in 1897,
Nasska; More than crossed my mind too, to keep sending in the ballot forms every election too.
Would be very profitable for one to harvest all those votes.
To think that this can become a virtous circle when government becomes even more digital compatible, with face book proving to be a ghostly echo chamber of proof of life.
“See – this is why you should be on facebook.” – Viking