Imagine asking your mother for advice years after she passed away and hearing her answer in her own voice.

Except the words aren’t hers. They’re being generated by artificial intelligence.

That’s the idea behind grief tech, an emerging industry developing AI chatbots, voice clones, and digital avatars that let people interact with recreations of deceased loved ones.

In this episode of Dad Think, I explore the ethical questions around AI recreations of deceased loved ones, how technology could change the way we experience grief, and what it really means to preserve someone’s memory.

Imagine you are scrolling through social media and you come across a reel of someone making a political argument. They’re sitting in front of a microphone, speaking confidently. Their voice sounds real. Their face looks real.

But there’s one problem. The person doesn’t actually exist. The entire video was AI-generated.

AI can now create pictures of events that never happened, podcasts hosted by people who don’t exist, and writing that sounds like it came from a real person.

We’ve all heard the saying, “seeing is believing.” But when something artificial can look and sound just as convincing as the real thing, how much can we trust what we see?

And even when we know something was created by AI, does it matter how it was made?

In this episode of Dad Think, I explore how artificial intelligence is changing our relationship with authenticity, why human creativity and personal experiences matter, and whether the process of creating something can be just as valuable as the finished product.

0:00 Does Authenticity Matter Anymore?
0:34 Welcome to Dad Think
1:01 The AI Webinar
2:30 Authenticity Online
3:59 AI in Written Content
5:34 Does It Matter How It Was Made?
8:08 What's Real to Me
9:36 Outro

About Dad Think

Technology is changing faster than ever. Artificial intelligence, smartphones, social media, and algorithms are reshaping how we work, parent, communicate, and live.

Dad Think with Joe Ludwig is a podcast that explores technology's impact on society and culture, from a father's point of view. Join Joe as he explores how technology and culture are changing the way we live, think, and relate to one another, and tries to make sense of these changes, one story, one idea, one question at a time.

Subscribe for thoughtful conversations about AI, parenting, and digital culture.

Follow Joe

X: https://x.com/JoeTLudwig
Substack: https://josephtludwig.substack.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JosephTLudwig
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joetludwig/

Why does it sometimes feel like everyone online is suddenly talking about the same thing?

We've always taken cues from the crowd. Social media changes the size of that crowd, and algorithms now help decide which parts of it we see. A trend, opinion, or idea can suddenly seem like it's everywhere simply because the system keeps putting it in front of us.

And if people understand what the algorithm rewards, they can sometimes give a message an extra push.

So when something suddenly seems to be everywhere, are we seeing what people genuinely care about, or what the algorithm has decided to keep showing us?

In this episode of Dad Think, I explore how social media algorithms are changing an old form of peer pressure, and why thinking for ourselves now means asking how the crowd got in front of us in the first place.

About Dad Think
Technology is changing faster than ever. Artificial intelligence, smartphones, social media, and algorithms are reshaping how we work, parent, communicate, and live.

Dad Think with Joe Ludwig is a weekly podcast that explores technology's impact on society and culture, from a father's point of view. Each week, join Joe as he explores how technology and culture are changing the way we live, think, and relate to one another, and tries to make sense of these changes, one story, one idea, one question at a time.

Subscribe for thoughtful conversations about AI, parenting, and digital culture.

Follow Joe:
X: https://x.com/JoeTLudwig
Substack: https://josephtludwig.substack.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JosephTLudwig
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joetludwig/

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