It leaves all at once
A founder retires, a parent dies, a mentor steps back. Decades of context — who to trust, what was tried, what really mattered — leave in a single day.
木霊
Kodama
A trusted friend who carries your story.
Kodama is an identity continuity service. It allows donors, after they die or retire, to pass their knowledge and decision-making capabilities to future designated heirs — through a living AI guide built from their personal memories, experiences and judgement decisions.
Why Kodama
When someone goes,
their judgement goes with them.
We inherit houses, companies and photo albums. We rarely inherit what made them work: how a person thought, what they weighed, and why they chose as they did.
Archives can't answer back
Letters, videos and documents keep what was said. They can't answer the question you have today, about a situation they never saw.
Heirs are left guessing
Without that context, the people who carry on are left to guess what they would have done — and often to disagree about it.
What Kodama is
A living guide,
built from a life.
While they are alive, the donor tells Kodama their story: the memories, the experiences, and the decisions they made — and why. Kodama turns it into a guide the people they choose can talk to.
It is not an impersonation. Kodama never pretends to be the person; it speaks about them, like a trusted friend who knew them well, and only from what they actually said.
What heirs ask
- “What would she have weighed here?”
- “Why did he never sell the farm?”
- “How did they decide who to trust?”
- Families
- Values, stories and history, kept for children and grandchildren.
- Family businesses
- The reasoning behind decisions, handed to the next generation.
- Founders & mentors
- Hard-won judgement that would otherwise retire with them.
How it works
Two conversations, one memory.
Everything happens by voice. One person speaks to be remembered; others speak to remember them.
The donor
Kodama listens
Guided voice interviews, at the donor's own pace. Kodama asks what a good friend would — about people, turning points, and the hard calls — so nothing important is left to chance.
- Memories, experiences and the reasoning behind decisions
- A self-portrait of values and temperament
- The donor reviews everything Kodama keeps
The heirs
Kodama remembers
A child, a successor, an old friend — someone the donor named — sits down and asks. Kodama answers from what the donor actually said, and tells them where it came from.
- Only the heirs the donor names, each with their own key
- Every claim about the donor is cited — or Kodama abstains
- Each heir's conversations stay private to them
- I
Capture
The donor speaks, while alive. Their words are kept as they said them.
- II
Compile
Kodama distils people, events, values and decisions — and what is unknown.
- III
Converse
After they die or retire, their heirs talk with Kodama. It cites, or it stays quiet.
- IV
Rest
How a guide eventually comes to rest is designed in from the start.
Did she ever say why she left the city?
She did. She told me the move north was about the lake — she wanted her children to grow up next to water, the way she had.
From her story · the move northWhat was her favourite song?
I don't know. She never told me — and I won't guess on her behalf.
Not in her story · no guessIllustrative exchange with a synthetic donor.
Grounded
Cite, or stay silent.
A language model knows a great deal about the world. It knows nothing about your grandmother.
So Kodama keeps the two apart. Every claim about the donor's life points back to their own words. When there is nothing to point to, Kodama says so. Warmth is welcome; invention is not.
Promises
Six things we will not bend.
Lifetime consent
Only a living adult can donate, and only for themselves. Consent is explicit, revisited, and theirs to withdraw.
No advertising, ever
A person's memory is not inventory, and a family's attention is not the product.
Never an impersonation
Kodama speaks about the donor, never as them. It is their friend — not their replacement.
No therapeutic claims
Kodama is a guide, not a treatment. A named clinical advisory board keeps us honest about that line.
The right to refuse
Heirs are invited, never enrolled. Anyone may decline to listen, and each conversation stays theirs alone.
Designed retirement
How a guide eventually comes to rest is designed in from the start — not left to chance.
Where we are
Growing slowly, on purpose.
Kodama is a working prototype — real voice conversations, real memory, real evaluations — built at Ænima Labs.
- Working prototype ready
Be among the first to hear.
Families, family businesses, clinicians, researchers and partners — we read every message.
Register interestMeeting us at Slush 2026 in Helsinki? Ask for a live demo.