Could The Use of A.I. Be a Potential Coping Mechanism for Grief?

      Let's face it, everyone is bound to face grief at some point in their life. Some individual's grief are greater than others, but there is also another way we are different (yet the same): our comping mechanisms. Everyone reacts differently to the death of a loved one. This blog post will be a reflection about an episode from Black Mirror. Now let's set the stage, in the episode "Be With Me" a young lady is faced with the sudden death of her fiance. She is struck with grief and behaves like anyone else would in that situation. Or maybe she behaves like how we are used to seeing it. She displays the common behavioral reactions associated with grief: detachment from family and changes in interest, and etc. Then, she does something  we are not used to seeing. She gets an A.I (artificial intelligence) of her recently passed loved one. What I am here to discuss today is how this technology will change the way he handle and perceived grief. Initially, upon hearing about this situation, I immediately believed that the use of an A.I would be an extremely unhealthy way to deal with grief. But then a fellow college of mine raised an important question,

What exactly is the healthy way of dealing with grief.  The American Psychological Association defines unhealthy grief as, "something that prolongs suffering, interrupts normal activities or prevents life from being lived to the fullest." The source states that one of the basic reasons individuals cope this way is that the person has an excessive need to maintain interaction with the person be who died. By this definition, I believe that the A.I was an unhealthy comping mechanism. She began to rely heavily on it for her emotional needs and began to cut those around her off. Eventually, I believe that the widow realizes that she is merely clinging to the memory of her fiance. She puts him up in the attic to move on. However, I would also like to discuss more about the company that produces these A.I.


          On a further note, I would also like to  address some things about the company that makes this product. What exactly is their mission statement? Does this company truly care about its customers and truly belief that this is a healthy coping mechanism? Or maybe do we need to rethink and revise "healthy" ways of dealing with grief? Or does the company solely care about its profit and created a sick idea of profiting off their customers' emotions/ Usually, a company priorities it profit over the initial well-being of its customer. This business seems to take full advantage of the weakness one faces during grief. My initial thought of this makes me believe that they take advantage of their currently irrational minds and make a profit.