Chinese Mourners Turn to AI for Digital Resurrections

Despite Ethical and Psychological Concerns, Industry Booms as Grieving Families Seek Comfort

Chinese mourners are using artificial intelligence to create lifelike avatars of their deceased loved ones, with some companies claiming to have created thousands of 'digital people' from as little as 30 seconds of audiovisual material.
The AI firm Super Brain charges between $1,400 and $2,800 to create a basic avatar within about 20 days, and clients can even hold video calls with a staff member whose face and voice are digitally overlaid with those of the person they have lost.
The technology is seen as a way to offer comfort to those grieving, but it also raises ethical and psychological concerns, such as the potential for the digital avatars to behave out of character or 'contaminate' the memory of the deceased.
There are also concerns about the inability of the deceased to consent to their likeness being used in this way, and the potential for the technology to be misused or have negative impacts on certain individuals.
Despite these concerns, the industry is booming in China, with the founder of Super Brain stating that China is in the highest class worldwide when it comes to AI technology.