Soon, Skype chat with deceased via Eterni.me

A new technology reportedly allows people to make themselves virtually immortal and comfort their loved ones after their death.

Eterni.me, a startup developed by MIT's Entrepreneurship Development Program, is aimed at creating a user's virtual avatar, based on their past online activities, that can do a Skype chat with the deceased family members.

According to Cnet, the startup intends to digitally reconstruct the personality of the deceased by assembling a portrait based on the person's online activities.

A user is required to provide the team with their chat logs, social-network information, photos, and e-mails, so that they can reconstruct the user's memories and mannerisms.

The Eterni.me website states that reconstruction of the virtual avatar, based on use of complex Artificial Intelligence algorithms, emulates the user's personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to, their family and friends after the user passes away. It's like a Skype chat from the past.

Eterni.me CEO Marius Ursache said that the startup would be accepting new users gradually and the site received 1,300 e-mail registrations in less than 24 hours, the report added.