• Meta secured a patent for AI that could replicate a user’s social media behavior after death, including posts, messages and simulated calls
• Privacy experts and grief researchers warn the technology could exploit mourning families while boosting platform engagement metrics
• The patent joins a growing “grief tech” industry that has drawn scrutiny from Cambridge ethicists and remains largely unregulated

MENLO PARK, CA (TDR) — Meta has been granted a patent describing an artificial intelligence system capable of simulating a user’s social media activity after extended absence or death, igniting a fierce debate among technologists, ethicists and grief counselors over where the line falls between digital legacy and commercial exploitation.

The patent, first filed in November 2023 and granted in late December 2025, outlines a large language model trained on a user’s historical online activity — posts, comments, likes, messages and voice data — to replicate their behavior across Meta’s platforms. The filing lists Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, as the primary inventor.

What the Meta AI Patent Actually Describes

The patent goes well beyond simple account memorialization. According to the filing, the system could generate posts, respond to direct messages, comment on content and interact with other users in patterns that mirror the original account holder’s established behavior. The document also references advanced capabilities including simulated audio and video calls using the reconstructed digital persona.

“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.”

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The patent argues that a user’s sudden disappearance from a platform affects the broader community of connected accounts.

“The impact on the users is much more severe and permanent if that user is deceased and can never return to the social networking platform.”

A Meta spokesperson emphasized the filing does not represent a product announcement.

“We have no plans to move forward with this example.”

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The spokesperson added that companies routinely file patents to protect or disclose concepts that may never be developed into commercial products.

The Business Incentive Critics Can’t Ignore

While Meta frames the patent around user experience and community continuity, several researchers have pointed to a more straightforward calculation: engagement. Edina Harbinja, a professor at the University of Birmingham Law School specializing in digital rights and post-mortem privacy, identified the financial logic directly.

“It’s more engagement, more content, more data — more data for the current and the future AI. I can see the business incentive for that.”

Facebook has accumulated an estimated 30 million or more accounts belonging to deceased users over its two decades of operation — a growing reservoir of inactive profiles that generate no ad revenue and no engagement metrics. Reactivating even a fraction of those accounts through AI simulation could represent significant commercial value.

Harbinja cautioned that companies must balance innovation against the digital rights of individuals after death and questioned who ultimately controls a person’s digital representation once they’re no longer able to consent.

“It raises social, ethical, and philosophical questions about how people are represented after death and who controls that representation.”

Grief Researchers Sound the Alarm

The psychological stakes have drawn attention from academics who study how technology intersects with mourning. Joseph Davis, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, expressed direct concern about what AI simulations could do to the grieving process.

“One of the tasks of grief is to face the actual loss. Let the dead be dead.”

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