From ‘grief bots' to 3D avatars: How startups are using AI to simulate the dead
The latest and possibly most controversial use case for generative AI is here. A new wave of startups are creating so-called 'grief bots' or 'dead bots' that allow people to interact with AI representations of their deceased loved ones.
These bots are essentially large language models (LLMs), fine-tuned to generate responses that mimic the speech and personality of the deceased individual. They are, in turn, part of a larger field known as 'grief tech' which includes technology ranging from chatbots to more realistic 3D avatars of people who have died.
Project December, Story File, and You, Only Virtual are a few of the startups that are focused on developing AI tools to help users grieve and cope with the loss of a partner, friend, or family member.
While these AI simulations may offer some people a sense of closure, they also raise serious concerns. Despite being trained to resemble real individuals, interactions with AI bots and avatars can still be quite unpredictable and unsettling for many.
'We are talking about a very specific group of users, they are in a very vulnerable state. They are looking for some closure but the opposite can happen,' Hans Block, a film director, said in an interview that is part of a recent documentary called Eternal, You.
'Some of the services are using a lot of private data. For example, the practice of storing all the messages that a person has sent to another person in order to create how a person is speaking in a way,' Block added.
Justin Harrison, the founder and CEO of You, Only Virtual, offered a different perspective. Harrison's startup creates AI-powered audio versions of people called Versonas that users can call and have conversations with. The very first Versona he created using AI was based on his own mother after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
'This is one of the many problems that we are meant to solve. There are moments when only your mom or only your dad can make you feel better. They are the only ones who can say that right thing in the way that they would say it to you. And that's an unquantifiable help,' Harrison told BBC in an interview. He further envisions Versonas being integrated with realistic robots in the future.
Grief bots are also evolving beyond text and audio to become more lifelike and interactive. StoryFile works with its users to create AI-powered video avatars of deceased loved ones that allow for conversations resembling a Zoom call.
A user whose father was diagnosed with a terminal illness signed up for StoryFile's service. The company sat down with the father and had him repeat stock phrases such as 'Hi', 'I love you, too', 'Bye for now', and 'I don't have an answer for that right now' for when the AI avatar is unable to generate a suitable response to the user's query, according to a report by The New York Times.
StoryFile also makes interactive AI-generated videos for museums and other art foundations. Going forward, the startup reportedly has plans to develop an AI app that lets users themselves create an avatar of a person by uploading their emails, social media posts, and other background information.
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Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
From ‘grief bots' to 3D avatars: How startups are using AI to simulate the dead
The latest and possibly most controversial use case for generative AI is here. A new wave of startups are creating so-called 'grief bots' or 'dead bots' that allow people to interact with AI representations of their deceased loved ones. These bots are essentially large language models (LLMs), fine-tuned to generate responses that mimic the speech and personality of the deceased individual. They are, in turn, part of a larger field known as 'grief tech' which includes technology ranging from chatbots to more realistic 3D avatars of people who have died. Project December, Story File, and You, Only Virtual are a few of the startups that are focused on developing AI tools to help users grieve and cope with the loss of a partner, friend, or family member. While these AI simulations may offer some people a sense of closure, they also raise serious concerns. Despite being trained to resemble real individuals, interactions with AI bots and avatars can still be quite unpredictable and unsettling for many. 'We are talking about a very specific group of users, they are in a very vulnerable state. They are looking for some closure but the opposite can happen,' Hans Block, a film director, said in an interview that is part of a recent documentary called Eternal, You. 'Some of the services are using a lot of private data. For example, the practice of storing all the messages that a person has sent to another person in order to create how a person is speaking in a way,' Block added. Justin Harrison, the founder and CEO of You, Only Virtual, offered a different perspective. Harrison's startup creates AI-powered audio versions of people called Versonas that users can call and have conversations with. The very first Versona he created using AI was based on his own mother after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. 'This is one of the many problems that we are meant to solve. There are moments when only your mom or only your dad can make you feel better. They are the only ones who can say that right thing in the way that they would say it to you. And that's an unquantifiable help,' Harrison told BBC in an interview. He further envisions Versonas being integrated with realistic robots in the future. Grief bots are also evolving beyond text and audio to become more lifelike and interactive. StoryFile works with its users to create AI-powered video avatars of deceased loved ones that allow for conversations resembling a Zoom call. A user whose father was diagnosed with a terminal illness signed up for StoryFile's service. The company sat down with the father and had him repeat stock phrases such as 'Hi', 'I love you, too', 'Bye for now', and 'I don't have an answer for that right now' for when the AI avatar is unable to generate a suitable response to the user's query, according to a report by The New York Times. StoryFile also makes interactive AI-generated videos for museums and other art foundations. Going forward, the startup reportedly has plans to develop an AI app that lets users themselves create an avatar of a person by uploading their emails, social media posts, and other background information.
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Time of India
Smaller cities to drive India's quick commerce market to $57 billion by 2030
New Delhi: Riding on a surge in online orders in smaller cities and towns, India is likely to see its quick commerce (QC) total addressable market (TAM) reach USD 57 billion by 2030, according to a new report. Morgan Stanley has updated its forecast from earlier USD 42 billion, as quick commerce adoption rises across the country. The global brokerage has also raised its gross order value (GOV) estimates for the quick commerce segment in India by 9-11 per cent for FY26-28. It also identified key catalysts for the sector in the coming quarters, including sustained growth in quick commerce GOV, continued improvement in food delivery margins, and a stable competitive environment. Quick commerce operators, including Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto and Flipkart Minutes continue to expand. Eternal's (earlier Zomato) quick commerce business is "primed for growth" with a profitability profile over the medium term that is expected to mirror its food delivery operations, said the report. By holding leadership positions in both food delivery and quick commerce, Eternal is uniquely positioned to dominate a growing profit pool, the brokerage noted. According to a recent KPMG Private Enterprise's Venture Pulse, global VC investment rose from USD 349.4 billion across 43,320 deals in 2023 to USD 368.3 billion across 35,684 deals in 2024, as quick-commerce remains a hot sector of investments in India this year. E-commerce and quick commerce have grown 2-3 times faster in value than traditional and modern trade channels, diminishing the need for an extensive traditional trade network to enter the market. Digital payments are also gaining popularity, with 45 per cent of Internet users adopting them for transactions, said a Bain & Company report in April. According to the RBI, "Private final consumption is the brightening spot in the economy, driven by e-commerce and q-commerce among which it is important to foster competition rather than being restrictive".
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Time of India
Flipkart may limit its quick commerce expansion to top cities to reduce burn
Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart is limiting the expansion of its quick commerce unit, Flipkart Minutes , to the top six to eight cities to rein in costs, according to people familiar with the matter. Flipkart Minutes, which competes with Eternal-owned Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart , Zepto, BigBasket's BB Now and Amazon Now, is currently present in 14 cities and runs a network of more than 300 so-called dark stores , or mini warehouses. The intent is to scale this up to around 500-550 by October. Flipkart group chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy had said in April that Minutes would have 800 stores by this year-end. 'More than 90 per cent of the quick commerce volumes are generated from the top eight cities and a bulk of this comes from Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru where Flipkart is going deeper with Minutes,' one of the people said. With this shift, Flipkart joins its Bengaluru-based rival Swiggy in taking a relatively cautious approach to expansion from hereon, notwithstanding Eternal's plans to aggressively chase market share even at the cost of short-term profitability. '...(Flipkart) plans to expand to 500-550 dark stores before its annual 'big billion days' sale. However, it is also under pressure to halve its ongoing cash burn of around USD 40 million (Rs 340-350 crore) a month over the next few quarters in a bid to launch its IPO,' analysts at brokerage firm HSBC Securities wrote in a May 12 research note. Flipkart did not respond to queries sent by ET. Last month, Flipkart's board cleared the company's proposal to shift its domicile from Singapore to India, ahead of a planned IPO in 2026. The process, which is underway now, was initiated almost a year after Flipkart raised USD 350 million from Google as part of a USD 1 billion funding round led by Walmart . Quick commerce challenges Flipkart's tempered quick commerce push comes amid the rapid growth witnessed by the sector over the last one year — particularly when the broader ecommerce segment with a long-tail of categories has seen sluggishness. A March 2025 joint report by Bain & Company and Flipkart pointed out that India's e-tail gross merchandise value (GMV) growth slowed down to 10-12 per cent in 2024 from over 20 per cent in the previous years on account of macroeconomic consumption stress. In the same period, quarterly gross order value (GOV) for quick commerce players more than doubled, albeit on a smaller base. Even as Flipkart works to shorten delivery timelines across its broader ecommerce network, a wider expansion of Minutes could result in increased losses — as visible with Blinkit and Instamart, which together added more than 600 dark stores in the January-March quarter. Both Blinkit and Instamart, whose parents are listed, have a presence in close to 100 cities. They have significantly increased cash burn to undertake this expansion. While Blinkit, which added 294 dark stores, incurred a capital expenditure of Rs 317 crore during the three-month period ended March 2025, Instamart spent Rs 425 crore in capex to add 316 such micro-warehouses to its network. Blinkit's operating losses for the quarter came in at Rs 178 crore, while for Instamart it was Rs 840 crore. ET reported on February 15 that the top three quick commerce players – Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto – were collectively burning around Rs 1,300-1,500 crore per month with Zepto accounting for the largest share. Burn rate measures how quickly a company spends its reserves before generating positive cash flow. The funds are typically used for user acquisition and maintaining growth through marketing, discounting and in this case opening new warehouses. Industry analysts noted that while promoting quick commerce in urban centres requires considerable marketing investments, it is the rapid physical expansion of opening dark stores that strains finances. 'For new players, it's logical to build a sustainable model before expanding to smaller towns. In quick commerce, unless a dark store achieves around 1,000 orders per day — which typically happens in densely populated areas with high-rise buildings — it's hard to break even,' said Abhishek Pathak, internet sector analyst at brokerage firm Motilal Oswal. 'They (Flipkart Minutes) might be focusing on profitable growth, likely in preparation for the IPO. However, capturing market dominance in cities like Mumbai or Delhi is challenging, given the entrenched presence of Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy,' Pathak added. To be sure, Flipkart Minutes' plan to scale up to 800 dark stores will be the fastest ever in the quick commerce segment. The company had launched quick commerce operations in August 2024 in Bengaluru in a few pockets. Instamart took over two years to hit 700 dark stores that it achieved in December 2024. Zepto and Instamart topped the 1,000 dark-store-mark in the January-March quarter, whereas Blinkit had over 1,300 dark stores on its network as of March 31. The Gurgaon-based company plans to have 2,000 such warehouses by December 2025. Amazon Now is also expanding its network to 300 dark stores in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Mumbai by end-2025, ET had reported in March.
