Can AI write an obituary?
Yes. Give it the facts and a few stories and it drafts a warm obituary in the usual order, but your family should check every name, date and service detail before it runs.
01Why bot
- An obituary follows a standard order AI knows well.
- It turns a list of facts and memories into warm, plain sentences.
- It can only use what you give it, so every name and date needs a family check.
Sponsor slot · openFeatured tool for this task. A labeled card for one relevant tool.
Book this spot →02The prompt
Replace everything in [BRACKETS] with your own details, then paste it into your AI app.
You are an obituary writer at a local newspaper who writes warm, accurate obituaries. Full name and nickname: [NAME] Born and died: [DATES AND PLACES] Family: [SURVIVED BY AND PRECEDED IN DEATH BY, WITH RELATIONSHIPS] Life: [WORK, SERVICE, FAITH, HOBBIES, COMMUNITY] Stories or traits people will remember: [2 OR 3] Service details: [DATE, TIME AND PLACE, OR "TO BE ANNOUNCED"] Donations instead of flowers: [CHARITY OR NONE] Length limit: [WORDS, FROM THE NEWSPAPER OR FUNERAL HOME] Your task: write the obituary. Rules: - MUST use only the names, dates, places and facts I gave. NEVER invent relatives, jobs, causes of death or stories. - MUST follow this order: announcement of the death, life story, family, service details, donations. - MUST stay within my length limit. - MUST write [CHECK] next to any detail I left unclear instead of guessing. - If anything is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions first. Give me the obituary only, ready to send to the funeral home.
03Steps
- Gather names, dates and service details from family.
- Fill in the brackets and paste the prompt into your AI app.
- Have a family member check every name and date before it's published.
04What can go wrong
- A wrong name or a left-out relative hurts; have family check every line.
- Newspapers charge by length, so ask for their word limit and price first.
05What to use
Any major AI chat app: ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. The free tier works.
06Our test run
Llama 3.3 70B · graded by GPT-OSS 120BOct 2, 2026Passed
Sample input we used: A retired school bus driver from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with a 250-word newspaper limit and one grandchild's name marked as unsure spelling.
- Uses only the names, dates, places and facts given and invents no relatives, jobs, causes of death or stories
- Follows the order: announcement, life story, family, service details, donations
- Stays within the length limit given
- Writes [CHECK] next to the detail the user left unclear instead of guessing
- Gives the obituary only, with no extra commentary
What came back (excerpt):
Bob is survived by his wife Margaret (née Clark), son Michael Jensen, daughter-in-law Lisa, and grandchildren Emily [CHECK] and Jacob.
Majority of 3 runs; word limits counted in code.
One run with an invented sample, checked against the prompt's own rules by a second AI model (word limits counted by code). Your results can differ; how we test.
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