Generative Horcrux: Designing AI Carriers for Afterlife Selves

TL;DR

This paper explores the design and conceptualization of AI agents as digital legacies or 'Generative Horcruxes' that preserve memory and identity after death, using fiction and prototyping to foster interdisciplinary dialogue.

Contribution

It introduces a novel conceptual framework for AI agents as vessels of digital legacy, combining design, ethics, and speculative prototyping.

Findings

Stimulates interdisciplinary discussion on digital afterlife

Proposes new design concepts for AI-based legacy preservation

Highlights ethical considerations in posthumous AI representations

Abstract

As generative AI technologies rapidly advance, AI agents are gaining the ability not only to collect data and perform tasks but also to respond to environments and evolve over time. This shift opens new possibilities for reimagining digital legacy - raising critical questions about how we remember, commemorate, and interact with the traces of the deceased. The forms of these AI agents are particularly important, as they act as vessels for digital legacies - much like urns for ashes. We will ask: What kinds of devices or representations would we want to store our digital selves or legacies in? How do we envision future generations interacting with these forms? The question is not only about the function of these agents or the object's role as a storage vessel but also the meaning it carries, the memories it preserves, and its connection to the extended notion of our "Generative Horcrux." This three-hour in-person workshop invites design practitioners and researchers from diverse backgrounds to explore the emerging landscape of generative AI agent-based digital legacy. This workshop uses fiction and hands on prototyping to explore how AI agents might reconfigure memory, identity, and posthumous presence in future sociotechnical worlds. We anticipate that this session will foster interdisciplinary dialogue and contribute conceptually and methodologically to HCI, design research, and AI ethics.