“Not How I Want Him to Be Remembered” — Man Blasts Funeral Home's AI Song About Dead Friend

A person left reconciling with the sudden passing of their friend was perturbed by how AI was used to create a song memorializing their life. Reddit user Atsird (@atsird) posted about their grief and anger in the part artificial intelligence played in their friend's remembrance proceedings.

The post begins with a shocking revelation about the nature of the Redditor's friend's death. "So, a weekend ago, my best friend shot himself in the head at 31," they penned.

His 7-year-old son would grow up without a father, and his fiancée without a partner.

While dealing with the brutal grief that comes with losing someone, especially under such especially tragic circumstances, Atsird also wrestled with feeling "disgust."

That's because they felt the way in which his deceased friend's memorial service was handled was disrespectful.

Or at least, one aspect of it. The Reddit user said that when his friend's obituary was released, a song about his life accompanied it. However, what they found shocking and egregious about the song was that it was clearly AI-generated.

They wrote in a blurb that kicked off the AntiAI Reddit thread: "The obituary came out last night, as well as a 'hand written song about his life' ... It was very obviously written by ChatGPT," they penned.

While they could clearly discern that the song about his friend's life was actually curated by an algorithm, they said that many of his friend's loved ones couldn't tell the difference.

But because they could, hearing the song left them feeling cold.

"Everyone else in his family is older or technologically absent, so they were all sobbing hysterically at how beautiful it all was, and how touching it was that someone at the funeral home wrote him a song and such a 'beautiful obituary,' but I felt nothing," they penned.

What's worse is that this computational memento mori is now a part of his friend's legacy, and it's one that would tarnish it.

"This is not a recap of his life. This is AI slop, and the words in which my friend will be remembered by his family going into eternity were procedurally generated slop. The AI slop is what his son will grow up thinking of him as."

Even more crushing is the fact that the Redditor believed his now-departed friend would've hated that an AI-crafted song was bumping at his funeral service and handed out to his family members.

"The only thing I can think about is how lame my dead friend would think this all is," they wrote.

But they were presented with a conundrum. After seeing the wave of tears roll out from their dead friend's family members, they had to keep quiet about it.

"I didn't have the heart to stomp on his family's appreciations of these 'handwritten, personalized messages,'" the Reddit user wrote.

Instead, they opted to "just keep [their] mouth shut and mourned the blatant disrespect of using AI in this setting. This is now how I want him to be remembered. What a h--l world," the Redditor said at the end of their post.

This particular case feels akin to a bit from Nathan For You, when he came up with a way to let children know their pets have passed away. He hired a voice actor to read a script for the deceased pup while syncing these words to an animation of the dog in question.

The end result is an exercise in dark, absurd comedy.

Some funeral homes have openly embraced utilizing artificial intelligence as part of their services. The White Emerson Mortuary, for instance, uploaded a blog post on its website titled, "The Role of AI in Funeral Home Operations."

This extends, the funeral home writes, to even the creation of content used for memorial services. "We understand that everyone is unique, and their farewell should reflect their life and legacy," the business writes.

Although the company does mention this, there does seem to be some verbiage that sounds similar to the critiques Atsird had with his friend's AI memorial track.

"By analyzing photos, videos, and stories shared by family and friends, AI can help us curate meaningful content that honors their memory in a special way," they replied.

Unsurprisingly, since the post was shared to the AntiAI sub, there was no shortage of folks who derided "AI slop."

But there were some folks who had differing opinions as to whether or not Atsird should've piped up about the content that was clearly not from his friend. "Really sorry for your loss. You did the right thing by not saying anything," one remarked.

The same person went on to state that the man's 7-year-old son probably garnered enough memories of their father to know that the AI messaging wasn't really him.

Another said: "I wonder if the deceased friend would have preferred he make a big scene yelling how insulting it is to have ai slop s--tting on their memory at their funeral, I know I would."

What do you think about integrating AI into personalized memorial services? Is it a blasphemous shortcut that dehumanizes someone in death?

Or is it a good coping mechanism to help give those who've survived some short of closure in the wake of a sudden passing where someone hasn't left behind dedicated correspondence to their friends and family?