Pricing Ranges From Hereafter AI's $199 Plans to Deepbrain AI's $50,000 3D Avatars

AI griefbots, or thanabots, are moving from science fiction to consumer services, using a deceased person's digital data to simulate their speech and behavior. Microsoft holds a 2020 patent for creating chatbots of specific people, including the dead. Pricing ranges from HereAfter AI's $199 plans to DeepBrain AI's $50,000 3D avatars.

These bots speak in the first person, generating new sentences after death, which raises ethical questions about consent and identity. While continuing bonds with the dead is natural, thanabots may preserve a version of the mourner tied to a changed relationship. In 2025, the father of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver created an AI version of his son for a journalist interview.