Back view of a digital man built out of code and blue light, embracing his grieving loved one at funeral Illustration: Guardian Design\/Guardian Design\/Getty<\/p>\n
Rod Stewart had a few surprise guests at a recent concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. His old friend Ozzy Osbourne, the lead singer of Black Sabbath who died<\/a> last month, was apparently beamed in from some kind of rock heaven, where he was reunited with other departed stars including Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Bob Marley.<\/p>\n The AI-generated images divided Stewart\u2019s fans. Some denounced them as disrespectful and distasteful; others found the tribute beautiful.<\/p>\n At about the same time, another AI controversy erupted when Jim Acosta, a former CNN White House correspondent, interviewed a digital recreation of Joaquin Oliver<\/a>, who was killed at the age of 17 in a 2018 high school shooting in Florida. The avatar of the teenager was created by his parents, who said it was a blessing to hear his voice again.<\/p>\n In June, Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, posted on X<\/a> an animation of his late mother hugging him when he was a child, created from a photograph. \u201cDamn, I wasn\u2019t ready for how this would feel. We didn\u2019t have a camcorder, so there\u2019s no video of me with my mom \u2026 This is how she hugged me. I\u2019ve rewatched it 50 times,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n AI-generated images of Ozzy Osbourne and Tina Turner were shown at a recent Rod Stewart concert in North Carolina. Illustration: Iamsloanesteel Instagram<\/p>\n These are just three illustrations of a growing phenomenon of \u201cdigital resurrection\u201d \u2013 creating images and bots of people who have died using photographs, videos, voice messages and other material. Companies offering to create \u201cgriefbots\u201d or \u201cdeathbots\u201d abound, and questions about exploitation, privacy and their impact on the grieving process are multiplying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s vastly more technologically possible now because of large language models such as ChatGPT being easily available to the general public and very straightforward to use,\u201d said Elaine Kasket, a London-based cyberpsychologist.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd these large language models enable the creation of something that feels really plausible and realistic. When someone dies, if there are enough digital remains \u2013 texts, emails, voice notes, images \u2013 it\u2019s possible to create something that feels very recognisable.\u201d<\/p>\n Only a few years ago, the idea of \u201cvirtual immortality\u201d was futuristic, a techno-dream beyond the reach of ordinary people. Now, interactive avatars can be created relatively easily and cheaply, and demand looks set to grow.<\/p>\n A poll commissioned by the Christian thinktank Theos<\/a> and carried out by YouGov in 2023 found that 14% of respondents agreed they would find comfort in interacting with a digital version of a loved one who had died. The younger the respondent, the more likely they were to be open to the idea of a deathbot.<\/p>\n Jim Acosta, a former CNN White House correspondent, \u2018interviewed\u2019 a digital recreation of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in a 2018 high school shooting in Florida. Illustration: Youtube<\/p>\n The desire to preserve connections with dead loved ones is not new. In the past, bereaved people have retained precious personal items that help them feel close to the person they have lost. People pore over photos, watch videos, replay voice messages and listen to music that reminds them of the person. They often dream of the dead, or imagine they glimpse them across a room or in the street. A few even seek contact via seances.<\/p>\n \u201cHuman beings have been trying to relate to the dead ever since there were humans,\u201d said Michael Cholbi, a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Grief: A Philosophical Guide. \u201cWe have created monuments and memorials, preserved locks of hair, reread letters. Now the question is: does AI have anything to add?\u201d<\/p>\n Louise Richardson, of York university\u2019s philosophy department and a co-investigator on a four-year project on grief, said bereaved people often sought to \u201cmaintain a sense of connection and closeness\u201d with a dead loved one by visiting their grave, talking to them or touching items that belonged to them.<\/p>\n \u201cDeathbots can serve the same purpose, but they can also be disruptive to the grieving process,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can get in the way of recognising and accommodating what has been lost, because you can interact with a deathbot in an ongoing way.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, people often wonder what a dead loved one might have done or said in a specific situation. \u201cNow it feels like you are able to ask them.\u201d<\/p>\n But deathbots may also provide \u201csanitised, rosy\u201d representations of a person, said Cholbi. For example, someone creating a deathbot of their late granny may choose not to include her casual racism or other unappealing aspects of her personality in material fed into an AI generator.<\/p>\n There is also a risk of creating a dependency in the living person, said Nathan Mladin, the author of AI and the Afterlife<\/a>, a Theos report published last year. \u201cDigital necromancy is a deceptive experience. You think you\u2019re talking to a person when you\u2019re actually talking to a machine. Bereaved people can become dependent on a bot, rather than accepting and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n The boom in digital clones of the dead began in the far east. In China, it can cost as little as 20 yuan<\/a> (\u00a32.20) to create a digital avatar of a loved one, but according to one estimate the market was worth 12bn yuan (\u00a31.2bn) in 2022 and was expected to quadruple by 2025.<\/p>\n More advanced, interactive avatars that move and converse with a client can cost thousands of pounds. Fu Shou Yuan International Group, a major funeral operator, has said it is \u201cpossible for the dead to \u2018come back to life\u2019 in the virtual world\u201d. According to the China Funeral Association, the cost is about 50,000 yuan<\/a> per deceased person.<\/p>\n The exploitation of grief for private profit is a risk, according to Cholbi, although he pointed to a long history of mis-selling and upselling in the funeral business.<\/p>\n Kasket said another pitfall was privacy and rights to digital remains. \u201cA person who\u2019s dead has no opportunity to consent, no right of reply and no control.\u201d The fraudulent use of digital material to create convincing avatars for financial gain was another concern, she added.<\/p>\n Some people have already begun stipulating in their wills that they do not want their digital material to be used after their death.<\/p>\n Interactive avatars are not just for the dead. Abba Voyage, a show that features digital versions of the four members of the Swedish pop group performing in their heyday, has been a runaway success, making about \u00a31.6m each week<\/a>. Audiences thrill \u2013 and sing along \u2013 to the exhilarating experience while the band\u2019s members, now aged between 75 and 80, put their feet up at home.<\/p>\n Abba\u2019s avatars, wearing Dolce & Gabbana, as seen in Abba Voyage. Illustration: Abba Voyage<\/p>\n