As AI systems quickly improve in both breadth and depth of performance, they lend themselves to creating increasingly powerful and realistic agents, including the possibility of agents modeled on specific people. We anticipate that within our lifetimes it may become common practice for people to create a custom AI agent to interact with loved ones and/or the broader world after death. We call these generative ghosts, since such agents will be capable of generating novel content rather than merely parroting content produced by their creator while living. In this paper, we first discuss the design space of potential implementations of generative ghosts. We then discuss the practical and ethical implications of generative ghosts, including potential positive and negative impacts on individuals and society. Based on these considerations, we lay out a research agenda for the AI and HCI research communities to empower people to create and interact with AI afterlives in a safe and beneficial manner.

翻译：随着人工智能系统在性能广度和深度上的快速提升，它们被用于构建日益强大且逼真的智能体，其中包括可能模拟特定人物的智能体。我们预见，在我们有生之年，人们可能会普遍在死后创建定制的AI智能体来与亲友和/或更广阔的世界进行互动。我们将这些智能体称为"生成幽灵"，因为它们能够生成全新内容，而不仅仅是复述其创造者生前留下的内容。本文首先探讨了生成幽灵潜在实现方案的设计空间，随后分析了其实际与伦理影响，包括对个人和社会可能产生的正负面效应。基于上述考量，我们为人工智能与人机交互研究领域制定了一项研究议程，旨在以安全有益的方式赋能人们创建和参与"AI身后世界"的互动。