Losing someone you love can be hard. Being unable to share their presence, touch them, or talk to them again can be even harder.

For years, technology has offered a way for the bereaved to stay connected to those they've lost, whether that's through photos or videos.

Things can now go one step further, however, as artificial intelligence can now be used to 'resurrect' the dead so you can have a conversation with them.

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For just £8, you can pay to build a chatbot that mimics the behaviour of someone you've lost. 'Project December' promises that its 'deep AI' can simulate a text based conversation with 'anyone', "including someone who is no longer living".

The creator of Project December, Jason Rohrer, first built his chatbot-making software during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After finding out that people were using it to recreate the dead, he decided to relaunch it as a 'special purpose service' for communicating with the deceased.

"It's interesting to build something so cutting-edge, crazy, and science fiction-esque. It's fascinating for me as a creator," Rohrer told The Register. He added that he hopes users "get the help they were looking for out of this experience".

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Users are asked to complete a form with information about their dead loved one, including their name, cause of death, personality traits, and any special information such as pets.

One user of the service said he had used the service to speak to a number of dead people, from his grandma to Steve Jobs. He even tried to speak to his dead future self.

"Depending on the intention, conversations can be funny, creepy, profound, weird, spiritual, or even comparable to a healing process," he told the Register.

Project December warns users that they should "not expect perfection" as they work with "science-fiction level technology".

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