When I spoke to my phone, my face appeared on the screen, and I said, 'Hi, my name is Robert, and I'm looking forward to telling you about my life.' I was talking to an AI avatar of myself, designed to allow people to'live on' after death so that relatives can talk to them and learn about their lives. My wife's reaction to my AI clone was absolute horror, as she simply said, 'My God, why?' The clone comes courtesy of a'digital afterlife' service, Hereafter.AI, part of a wave of AI-powered'grief tech' created by programmer James Vlahos after his father died of cancer in 2016. The service creates a'Legacy Avatar' that can live on after your death (Rob Waugh/Hereafter) Vlahos programmed a'Dadbot' while his father was still alive, recording his responses to questions - and Hereafter's service now uses AI to make it easier to interact. Science has unearthed several distinct patterns around when people tend to die.

Can artificial intelligence help to bring up children? Senior executives in the toy market think so. Allan Wong, CEO of toymaker VTech Holdings, has said that in just five years, teddy bears could be reading personalized AI stories to kids, while humanoid nannies could be only a few decades away. Many companies are now offering AI-enhanced toys, apps and games for children - with a new robot, Moxie, which its maker claims improves social skills in 71 percent of children. I put the current cutting-edge artificial intelligence programs to the test, by asking leading bots like ChatGPT and Google Bard to help me parent my 18-month-old son William and keep him entertained for an entire day (easier said than done for mere mortals).