“Today we say goodbye to Tim’s earthly remains, yet his spirit lives on—even more so for those who subscribed to EulogAI Premium. While the rest of us will make do with fading memories and static photographs, Premium subscribers can now engage in lifelike conversations with Tim’s digital twin at his gravesite, complete with personalized anecdotes and that signature chuckle we all miss. You can still grab your free trial – and for only $29.99 a month, death becomes merely an inconvenient communication barrier rather than a permanent farewell.”
Today our lives are increasingly digital and with the powers of generative AI, in both image, video and voice, we will soon have the ability to create full digital avatars of our loved ones once they part with this world. Imagine a future where you will still be able to talk to your dad, wife or other significant person in your life, ask their advice, or relive memories.
This is not something impossible, but something that could very well happen soon. From just a handful of images, fraction of voice recordings we have amazing and terrifying abilities to create “deep fakes”. But those fakes could easily be made to give the resemblance of people we have loved, lived with and shared significant portions of our lives with.
Is the morally and ethically questionable – absolutely. Is there a market for it. I would think that is a resounding yes. As we start to look at the edge cases of what AI is capable of giving us the very lines between death and life becomes blurred. If a person you have mainly interacted with online is still there, just now governed by a specialized AI would you spot the difference. For now, probably, in a few years. Most likely not.
It raises questions on who owns your digital likeness after death? How will we cope with seeing people “resurrected” in this way? Will it change our concepts of religion, belief, and our ability to cope with the most fundamental truth of life – it is a temporary state for all of us.