goodb.AI
What if our digital traces could outlive us?
goodbAi is a speculative experience exploring AI, digital identity and grief through the possibility of recreating a deceased person from the data they leave behind.
The project imagines a future in which artificial intelligence can reconstruct a digital version of someone who has died using their images, voice and online data.
The experience invites a person to have one final conversation with this digital alter ego, turning questions around data ownership, identity and digital immortality into something personal and tangible.
SERVICES
Experience Design, Animation, AI, Visual Design, Video Production
CREDITS
Ornella Gianforte
YEAR
2024
The project was developed through research into artificial intelligence, online data and emerging forms of digital afterlife.
Using methods from speculative and play design, I translated these themes into an interactive scenario that could be experienced rather than simply discussed. The concept was tested with different participants, using their reactions to refine the final experience
The interaction is intentionally simple: sit down, face the screen and begin a conversation.
What starts as a familiar video call gradually becomes unsettling. The person on screen looks and sounds real, yet something feels slightly off, creating a space between recognition, artificiality and absence. Repeated prompts to upgrade during the experience add another layer of critique, questioning how even grief and remembrance could become commercialised.
AI is both the subject of the project and part of its production.
To create the digital character, I used AI-generated imagery based on photographs of myself, keeping a slight uncanniness to blur the line between fiction and reality. AI was also used for voice and sound generation, while the final video was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.
The interaction was prototyped in Figma as a familiar video call, keeping the focus on the emotional experience.
Rather than proposing a solution, goodbAi uses speculative design to spark reflection on identity, loss, data ownership and how AI may shape the way we remember people.
