Are We Ready to See, Hear and Chat With Deceased Loved Ones Virtually Forever?
Grief tech promises digital immortalityPosted on October 25, 2023 by Dana Watson (Blog Writer, SevenPonds)
New technology, most often dubbed “grief tech,” could help you or your loved one to live virtually forever. Texts, emails, voicemails, videos, and social media accounts grant us opportunities to maintain a connection with a person after they die. But with the advent of AI, or artificial intelligence, this data can also be used to create a computer-generated copy of us that may eventually supersede the human experience that once created it. As science fiction is quickly becoming reality, how ready are we to upload ourselves or loved ones to a digital afterlife in lieu of mourning a loss? And what are the implications for us when we choose to do so?
Ginger Liu is a Fine Art researcher of photography and artificial intelligence. Her website offers expert interviews and personal insight into the ever-growing world of AI. Liu believes that these so-called death tech platforms are breaking new ground. “If you think about a photograph of a dead relative, it is a 2D static object stuck firmly in the past,” she explained. “A home video of someone deceased records that person alive while moving and talking. AI does something completely different. An AI version of a dead relative is interactive, it talks back, so in some respect, it is not stuck in the frozen past or the present, but has a future.”
