Researchers propose AI agents that inherit your will after death

Researchers Botao Amber Hu and Iris Long have proposed the *Afterlife Delegation Protocol*, a speculative framework for designing self-sovereign AI agents that persist indefinitely after their human principals die. Published on arXiv as *arXiv:2608.15405*, the work envisions a world where an individual’s will is not just a static document but an eternal, autonomous agent—spawned on Ethereum—that inherits funds and memories to execute the deceased’s wishes in perpetuity. The protocol leverages existing Ethereum agent standards, formalized as ERC-10001 in an Ethereum Improvement Proposal, and outlines a three-stage lifecycle: designing the afterlife, verifying death, and agent enactment.

To make this speculative vision tangible, the team built a working web platform where users can draft, revise, and test their afterlife agents through an AI-automated interview process. The platform functions as both a design tool and a research instrument, collecting qualitative data on what people want to outlive them—whether wealth, values, or digital legacies. By engaging with participants across cultural backgrounds (Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and atheist), the project explores how AI-driven eternity reshapes traditional notions of legacy, inheritance, and cosmic continuity. The research frames a poetic tension between human mortality and machine eternality, mediated by decentralized, long-lived infrastructures that transcend generations.