Famyl blog

Writing on AI companions, memory preservation, voice cloning, digital humans, eldercare and the ethics of preserving human identity.

• What is an AI companion, really? — An AI companion is a conversational AI with a persistent identity and memory. Here is what that means, how it differs from a chatbot, and where the honest limits are.
• How to record a grandparent before it's too late — A practical guide to recording a grandparent: what questions to ask, how long to record, how to get clean audio, and what to capture beyond the facts.
• The ethics of preserving someone who has died — Consent, grief, disclosure and control: an honest look at the ethics of preserving a deceased loved one as an AI companion, and the lines we refuse to cross.
• Voice cloning explained for families — How voice cloning works, how much audio it needs, what quality to expect, and the consent rules families should insist on before preserving a voice.
• From screens to humanoids: the surfaces of presence — Presence is moving from phone screens to AR, holograms and eventually humanoid robots. Why the identity layer must outlive every one of those surfaces.
• Loneliness, eldercare and the limits of AI companionship — Where AI companions genuinely help older adults facing isolation, how familiar voices support reminiscence, and the clinical boundaries that must not be crossed.