What should I tell him about you?
That I was hopeless at sitting still. That I burnt the rice, every single time. That I'd have liked to meet him.
Example answer
A place for who someone is, in their own words and their own voice, recorded while they are still here to tell it. Afterwards, the people they chose can listen, read and ask.
Ask for early accessThe big facts survive on paper. The small ones leave with the person.
Birth certificates and deeds outlive everybody. How she took her coffee, why he walked out of that job in 1987, what either of them would have said to a grandchild they never met: that goes. Nobody thinks to ask until there is no one left to ask.
What stays.
Their voice
Hours of them talking and telling stories, recorded on purpose.
Their diary
What they wrote down, and what the weekly sessions drew out of them.
Their photographs
With the story behind each one, told by the person who was there.
Their answers
Ask a question and hear what they said about it, with the date they said it.
A guestbook
For everyone who misses them, to leave what they remember.
How it will work
Three moments, and only the first one can't wait.
While they're here
It asks, and then it asks again
A session a week, spoken or written. Each one follows up on the last, the way a good biographer would.
In the meantime
It's kept, and it stays theirs
Encrypted, with a keyholder they name, and downloadable in full as ordinary files.
When the family is ready
It waits to be opened
Nothing unlocks on a timer. The person they appointed opens it, whenever that is.
It answers with what they said, and stops there.
Companies already generate talking likenesses of people who died without ever agreeing to it. SpeakStill only uses what someone recorded on purpose, while alive.
What it is
- An archive that answers in their own words
- A voice they recorded themselves, on purpose
- Answers that carry a date and a source
- A door the family chooses when to open
What it isn't
- A mind or a ghost
- A likeness of someone who never agreed
- A model that invents what they never said
- A profile that keeps posting as if they were here
Did you ever forgive him?
He never talked about that. I won't put words in his mouth.
Example answer · nothing recorded on this
Four promises
Written down first, so they can be held against us later.
Consent
People record themselves, while living, and decide what may be used, by whom and for how long.
Provenance
Every answer traces back to something they said. If they never covered it, the archive says so.
Exit
The whole archive downloads as ordinary files, any day you like, including the day this company stops existing.
Quiet
There is no feed and there are no anniversary notifications. Nobody hears from it until they open it.
Three things to know first.
Is this a chatbot pretending to be someone who died?
No. A SpeakStill archive will only answer with what the person recorded themselves, while they were alive, and every answer will show the date it was said. Asked about something they never covered, it says so instead of inventing an answer.
What happens to the archive if SpeakStill shuts down?
You will be able to download all of it as ordinary files, on any day, including the day we stop: audio, transcripts, photographs and documents. We won't open without that export.
Who decides when the family can open it?
The person who recorded it. They name a keyholder and set what may be opened, by whom, and when. Nothing unlocks by itself on a date or a death notice.
Where we are
SpeakStill isn't open yet. The first archive is the founder's own.
If you want to know when it opens, or you're a family, a hospice or a funeral director who needs it sooner, write to us.
hello@speakstill.com