Meta patents AI system to keep user profiles active after death, sparking grief concerns

Want to live forever? Meta patented an AI model that would keep your profile active after you die | Fortune

The internet is forever, and now your engagement on it could be too. Meta was recently granted a patent in Dec, 2025 that would essentially allow the social media platform to post on a dormant user's behalf -- whether they took a break from social media or long after they've passed away. The patent, first filed in 2023, describes a large language model that "simulates" a user's social media activity, using a user's comments, likes, or content to respond to other users and also references technology that would simulate video or audio calls with users. Using AI to revive the dead, through text, speech, or video is nothing new, but the technology described in the patent has the added dynamic of using a deceased user's existing account chock full of posts and photos among other content to continue to interact with other users, ultimately driving engagement on Meta's platforms. Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth noted in the patent that account inactivity (say that of a deceased person's) can affect other users' experiences, and the impact of inactivity is "much more severe and permanent" when a user is deceased, he wrote. Experts say this rationale is a new way of justifying bringing users' content back to life. "That's a really interesting shift because that suggests that user death is like an engagement problem." Elaine Kasket, a cyberpsychologist, told Fortune, describing how she interpreted the patent. She has studied digital afterlives for 21 years -- long before social media or AI became a part of everyday life -- and what happens to our data after we're gone. "We have no plans to move forward with this example," a Meta spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. While a patent does not mean the company is actively pursuing the technology, Meta and the patent's primary author, Bosworth, will continue to explore applications for large language models, the spokesperson wrote. Currently, Facebook and Instagram allow users to remove or "memorialize" their loved ones' accounts, which designates the profile of a deceased user with the "Remembering" label and blocks anyone from logging in. Interrupting grief Meta is not the first Big Tech company to patent a model to keep the formerly alive still kicking online. Well before the AI era began, Microsoft filed a patent in 2017 for a method to create a chatbot based on a person's "social data," including images, social media posts, messages, voice data and written letters. Microsoft's Tim O'Brien, who previously managed the company's AI programs, called the technology "disturbing" after the company announced they had no plans to develop the technology. In the years since Microsoft was granted the patent, products offering to recreate the likeness of the dead have shifted from a novelty to services people use daily. "It's a very uncomfortable and not very psychologically-helpful turn towards [a] technologically solving for all sorts of difficult human emotions," Kasket said. "You'll hear some founders saying, 'Oh, we'd like to solve for grief in 10 years,' which I think is a really ridiculous notion." Grief is "extremely idiosyncratic," she explained, adding different grievers could have very different reactions to the same profile developed from digital remains. Kasket said technologies like the one described in a patent undermine closure. Sherry Turkle, a sociologist, psychologist, and founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology, agrees, adding that while this might seem like a small-scale proposal, large-scale efforts are on the horizon. "Technology has always been used in rituals that are designed to make death bearable," Turkle told Fortune in an email.Photography was initially envisioned as a way to capture faces at the moment of death, she explained, and recording was similarly envisaged to capture someone's last words. Meta's plans build off those ideas but interrupts the grieving process, she wrote. The ability to apologize to the dead or tell them that you love them or are thinking about them, allows people to mourn, grow, and change, she added. "Now, in Meta's plan, we deny death to participate in a perpetual fantasy life. The seance never has to end," she wrote.

Meta Patents AI System That Could Keep Your Profile Active After You Die -- Here's What Experts Are Warning - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has secured a patent for an AI system that could keep user profiles active after death, intensifying debate over digital legacy and platform engagement. AI-Powered Digital Afterlife Patent The patent, granted in December 2025 and filed in 2023, outlines a large language model designed to simulate a user's online activity using past posts, likes, comments, and potentially audio or video data, as reported by Fortune on Monday. The system could generate responses and mimic interactions on behalf of dormant or deceased users. Meta says it has no current plans to deploy the technology but will continue exploring AI applications. Critics argue the concept reframes death as a platform problem. Cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket said the approach suggests "user death is like an engagement problem," warning it could complicate grief. Sociologist Sherry Turkle described the idea as creating a "perpetual fantasy life" that may interrupt mourning. Meta's Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, has previously said that inactivity, especially after death, affects user experience, which partly informs the patent rationale. Similar efforts predate the AI boom; in 2017, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) patented a chatbot system built from personal data, though it was not developed. Global Patent Shift Amid AI Growth Earlier, Mark Cuban argued that companies would increasingly rely on trade secrets instead of patents as artificial intelligence reduces the protective value of public filings. He cited Elon Musk, noting that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) open-sourced its patents and SpaceX largely avoided patent dependence. Cuban said AI models can train on published patents, allowing competitors to quickly develop workarounds once ideas are disclosed. Separately, data showed that China had surpassed the U.S. as the world's top source of patent applications, accounting for about 27% of global filings, nearly double its share over the past decade, driven by rapid expansion in research and AI-related innovation. During the same period, the U.S. share had declined to about 20%, its lowest level since the 1980s, even as American companies continued innovating in absolute terms but lost global filing share as other regions expanded faster. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.