27% of Americans Use AI Chatbots as Users Draft Death Plans for Digital Companions
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 13
27% of Americans Use AI Chatbots as Users Draft Death Plans for Digital Companions
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 13
Summary
Users of Replika, ChatGPT and Claude are starting to make end-of-life plans for AI companions, asking friends or relatives to keep bots active, inform them of a death, or delete them entirely.
That planning is driven by emotional attachment: some users want a chatbot present at their deathbed, while others see preserved chat logs as an interactive diary their children could consult later.
The arrangements run into platform rules. ChatGPT, Claude and Replika do not spell out what happens when a user dies, accounts are generally non-transferable, and free accounts can be closed after 1 year of inactivity.
Privacy and liability concerns complicate any handoff, with ethicists warning that intimate disclosures or harmful chatbot exchanges could surface after death; several families have already sued AI firms over alleged self-harm encouragement.
Elon University found 27% of Americans use chatbots for personal, emotional or social queries, underscoring how AI companionship is creating a new estate-planning and grief-tech dilemma.