In its brave quest to never learn a single thing from science fiction, Meta has patented a literally ghoulish AI that keeps you posting long after you're dead and gone

Cyberpunk 2077 screen detail — (Image credit: CD Projekt)

In season two, episode one of Black Mirror—a science fiction show designed to do what good sci-fi always does, satirise and critique the future—Martha, boyfriend of the late Ash Starmer, decides to try out a new service that creates an android from her dead boyfriend's social media profiles.

The episode is about how existentially horrifying this is, a harrowing glimpse into a future where AI passes the Turing Test so thoroughly it can replace the living, breathing people in our lives with the data that companies have spent decades harvesting.

In case your loved one has died, thus irrevocably affecting your user experience on a social media platform in a severe and permanent way, which is, I'm sure, your top priority in that situation—Meta's patent more-or-less describes a large language model trained on the personality of the absent or deceased.

The end result would be a social media bot that can like your posts, comment on them, or respond to your DMs, in case you're out on holiday, or… you know, dead. As Business Insider duly notes, this could be useful for influencers who are under constant pressure from the almighty algorithm to keep engagement up, which is only slightly less dystopian.

It's okay, though—Meta assures the publication that "we have no plans to move forward with this example", and that it's merely, as Business Insider paraphrases, to "disclose concepts". I'm being cynical, here, but this feels like the equivalent of going 'I'm not touching you, am I bothering you? I'm not touching you'. I'm just thinking about the patent, bro. I'm just out here disclosing my concepts.

Do I think Meta is seriously going to go through with this? It's unlikely. AI's proving to be so broadly unpopular that Microsoft's CEO—you know, head of one of the largest tech companies in the entire world—has had a big old whine and moan about the fact we all find it offputting and annoying. Digitally reanimating your loved ones so they can comment on your selfies seems beyond the pale.

Could this stuff potentially be used to help people grieve, as so many of these companies claim? Man, I dunno. Under the close watch of a therapist after decades of research, I concede maybe—grief is weird, people are weird. As part of a package Meta offers you on its social media platform? A feature provided by a corporate entity? Certainly not.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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