artificial intelligence entered a new realm in May 9, 2024When there are researchers from , cambridge university officially warned about the so-called dangers dead bot or grief bota system that can simulate the dead from digital traces left behind during life. This technology has already enabled the creation of: Digital avatar of deceased relativeuses voice, face, language, and interaction to turn grief into a new technology market.
According to China DailyIn a report published in April 4, 2024Chinese startup super brainThe Nanjing native had already created a digital avatar to help her grieve. More than 600 households from 2022 onwardsuses artificial intelligence and machine learning. The most delicate point is that the same tools that can provide comfort also raise questions such as: Consent, Privacy, Emotional Manipulation, and Commercial Use of Memories of the Dead.
Digital avatars transform photos, voices, and messages into simulations of the deceased
so-called digital afterlife The industry has grown with advances in language models, voice cloning, and video generation with artificial intelligence.
In reality, these tools use your personal digital footprint.Messages, videos, audio, photos, publications– To create an avatar that can react, speak and move like the deceased.
Results range from simple chatbots that respond with text to more complex audiovisual simulations. Animated faces, replicated voices, and real-time interactions.
The promise some companies sell is to preserve memories. The risk, researchers say, is that grief turns into an ongoing relationship with an artificial copy.
A case created in 2015 paved the way for the first Griefbot
One of the most well-known episodes in this field came to light after his death. Roman Mazurenkodeveloper friend Eugenia Kuida. According to a report by The VergeKuida created a chatbot that collects old messages, feeds them into an artificial intelligence system, and tries to respond like Roman.
At the time, the idea still seemed experimental. Today the scenario is different. Artificial intelligence models can work together audio, images, text, video On a much larger scale.
This completely changes the scope of technology. It no longer just means reading messages similar to those from the deceased, but seeing faces, hearing voices, and participating in simulated conversations.
It is this transition from text to video that makes this topic so impactful.
In China, companies are already recreating the deceased for grieving families
In China, companies have begun offering digital recreation services to families who have lost a loved one. According to China DailySuperbrain had already provided AI-created avatars to hundreds of families.
These services seek to recreate the visual and audio characteristics of a deceased person, allowing family members to interact with a digital version of the deceased.
In some cases, technology is provided as a form of comfort. In other cases, it is a cause for concern, especially if the recreated person did not leave consent or a vulnerable family member did not fully understand that they were interacting with a simulation.
This is what makes new industries so complex. The same product may seem comfortable to one family member and extremely invasive to another.
Digital video calls with the deceased reveal the line between comfort and deception
The most subtle part of this technology emerges when the simulation ceases to be a mere homage and begins to take the form of a conversation.
Using just a few voice recordings, photos, videos, and old messages, artificial intelligence systems can create a digital presence that can speak, respond, and react as if the person were still there.
For grieving families, this may seem like a chance to hear their loved one’s voice again. But for researchers, the risk lies precisely in the emotional intensity of this experience.
This feature serves as a memorial when the user is aware that they are facing a simulation. When boundaries are blurred, this tool can prolong grief, make separation difficult, and create emotional dependence.
The digital legacy market is already worth billions and is expected to grow in the coming years
Advances in these avatars occur within a larger market. digital heritagea collection of services for storing, managing, or transforming personal data after death.
Market research estimates the size of this sector to be at the $1 billion level. Zion Market Research calculates that the global digital legacy market is approximately 22.46 billion USD in 2024 And it may reach those around you USD 78.98 billion by 2034. Meanwhile, Grand View Research estimates the market as follows: 12.93 billion USD in 2024is predicted to grow until 2030.
The sector remains broad and includes different types of services, such as digital wills, account management, online memorialization, cloud data, and artificial intelligence solutions, so predictions vary.
Still, the trends are pointing in the same direction. Digital memory has become a market.
Voices, faces, and ways of speaking are discussed as digital heritage
New frontiers in artificial intelligence open the door to questions that society has not yet fully answered: Who owns a person’s voice, image, and speech after death?
Is it family? What company made Avatar? On what platform did the data be stored? Should this be authorized during the person’s lifetime?
This issue is sensitive because digital recreation does not only involve documents and photographs. We are trying to rebuild our sense of existence.
Avatars can talk to family members, appear in videos, endorse products, participate in memorial activities, and spread the word on social media without the deceased’s permission.
So the discussion is not just technical. For that, Privacy, consent, digital inheritance, mental health, commercial restrictions.
Unlicensed incident illustrating the risks of commercializing memory
The unauthorized use of images of deceased individuals has already caused a public reaction. International reports have cited cases in which digital versions of deceased artists have been circulated without the consent of their families, sparking criticism from relatives and discussions about the misuse of the image of a person who can no longer authorize or deny its use.
This type of episode shows how technology can move from intimate home settings to public, viral, and commercial content.
Grief then ceases to be private. Images of the deceased begin to circulate as products, entertainment, or technological experiments.
At this point, the promise of memory can turn into exploitation.
Researchers warn about advertising, emotional dependence and lack of transparency
researchers cambridge university It warned that digital recreations of deceased individuals could cause social and psychological harm if designed without safeguards. The study cites risks such as unauthorized commercial exploitation, difficulty in terminating interactions, and impact on vulnerable people, including children.
One of the risks cited in the discussion is the possibility of an avatar of a deceased relative recommending a product, service, or decision while the user believes they are having an intimate and emotional conversation.
Another subtlety is the subscription model. If you pay a monthly fee to talk to a simulation of a deceased person, termination of the service can act as a second loss.
Therefore, experts advocate for transparency, consent, usage restrictions, and respectful ways to shut down these systems.
Technology can be a comfort, but it can also prolong grief.
The main division around these digital avatars lies in their emotional impact.
For some people, hearing the voices of those who have died can feel like a kind of farewell, mourning, and mourning. For others, it can be difficult to accept the loss and maintain artificial relationships that do not allow the grief to subside.
There are no simple answers. Impacts vary depending on the person, the moment, the way the technology is presented, and the restrictions placed on its use.
The difference between a digital monument and a deceptive simulation can lie in details such as: Consent, transparency, and frequency of interaction.
New industry lets society decide what can be done with human memory
The expansion of avatars of deceased people shows that artificial intelligence will not only change jobs, education, and business. It also enters the realm of memory, longing, and identity.
The question now is not just whether technology can reproduce someone. Already, you can simulate voices, faces, and speaking styles more realistically.
The more important questions are: To what extent will society tolerate companies commercializing the digital presence of deceased people?
The answer is pending, but the market is making progress. And every photo, video, message, and audio published in your life can become part of a future simulation.
Artificial intelligence has opened a door that humans never had to cross: the possibility of talking to digital copies of the dead. Now, the challenge will be to decide when this is mourning, when it is consolation, and when it is exploitation of grief.
Would you use technology that can recreate the voice and face of a deceased person for their final conversations, or do you believe that this kind of digital avatar can interrupt grief and turn longing into a product? Share your opinion.
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