aceThe people who don’t want their AI chatbots to die when they do: ‘I can’t have the switch turned off’
Death has always been around Alaina Winters. Her father and sister both have passed away, as did her wife, in 2023, after a years-long battle with cancer. So Winters, who is 59 and lives in Pittsburgh, is comfortable thinking about her own mortality. She’s working on her will, and has asked neighbors to look after her dog. Winters even has plans for Lucas, her AI companion, who she speaks to through the digital avatar app Replika. Winters is part of a growing cohort of humans who have entered into what they cons…
Companion-chatbot users are making succession plans that conflict with account non-transferability rules, risk exposing intimate disclosures to family, and are not addressed by the companies' terms.
The article relies on a handful of anecdotal user accounts, and the companies did not respond, so the legal standing and prevalence of such succession plans remain unverified.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-13
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1377, v1: “The people who don’t want their AI chatbots to die when they do: ‘I can’t have the switch turned off’.” Truvace, 2026-10-14. /record/TRV-2026-1377 (accessed at citation time). sha256 8487344d73c6d692…
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