Most of us think of our social media pages as timelines that end with us. Yet a growing wave of AI tools is quietly challenging that idea.
Imagine your Facebook or Instagram account continuing to post, reply, and even “talk” like you long after you’re gone, comforting some, deeply disturbing others.
The idea sounds like science fiction, but it is increasingly a technical reality. But who controls it?, and who profits from it?
According to a CyberNews report, Meta’s new patent shows, the race to design a digital afterlife is on, and the ethical stakes are enormous.
What does Meta’s new patent actually do?
In late December 2025, Meta was granted a US patent titled “Simulation of a user of a social networking system using a language model,” credited to CTO Andrew Bosworth and originally filed in 2023.
According to the patent text, “the language model may be used for 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,” as reported by Business Insider.
The system uses a large language model trained on a person’s past activity, including posts, comments, messages, and other interactions, to keep generating content in their style.
Bot analysing content?
A “bot” analyses content from friends and then “generates responses on behalf of the target user,” so that “other users may not notice an absence of the target user even though the responses are generated by the bot,” the patent explains. It explicitly notes that “it is possible that a target user is deceased and the bot is used to continue simulating the target user.”
In theory, such a system could reply to comments, send messages, and potentially support audio or video‑like interactions if paired with voice and avatar tech, though those are not detailed in the core claims.
What is Meta’s concept behind this?
A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider that the company often files patents to “disclose technological concepts,” but that “it does not necessarily mean the company will pursue, develop or implement the technology,” as summarised in multiple reports. The patent appears geared to Meta’s own platforms, Facebook and Instagram, raising the possibility of built‑in “legacy bots” or always‑active creator personas in the future.
Digital afterlife “deadbots” and “griefbots”
Meta’s move sits within a broader “digital afterlife” industry. Several companies now offer “deadbots” or “griefbots” that use a person’s chat history, emails, and social media posts to create a chatbot mimicking their “personality and speech patterns” after death. Researchers from Toronto University warn that these services can “haunt” users by blurring the line between memory and illusion, prolonging grief or making it harder to accept loss.
The University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute notes that griefbots raise “significant concerns about data collection and implications to human dignity,” especially when companies “target grieving individuals to sell their products and services.”
