AI companies offer digital avatars of the dead

Companies are using artificial intelligence to create digital versions of deceased people, offering a new way to communicate with the dead. ORF reports that start-ups, including one called Lebensstimmen, are exploring the business in Austria.

The Swiss documentary filmmakers Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck examine the trend in their 2024 film “Eternal You”. The film features a young American woman who says she used a service to speak with someone she loved who had died.

Lebensstimmen offers funeral speeches and greeting messages from the deceased to their bereaved relatives. Christoph H. Wecht, rector of the New Design University in St. Pölten, says the technology could help some people find new ways to make decisions through conversations with a familiar voice. But he also warns against becoming dependent on an algorithm.

Critics argue that interacting with these “ghostbots” can prevent people from moving on and make it harder to distinguish reality from fiction. Wecht says young people should learn early how to use such systems and recognise that separating truth from fabrication can be difficult.

The technology also raises questions about privacy, consent and manipulation. Deceased people cannot object to their likeness being used to create a digital avatar. QR codes on gravestones and urns, which can link to information about the person buried there, are another emerging trend, but have not yet taken hold in Lower Austria.

Wecht says clear, binding rules are needed to ensure the technology is used ethically and respectfully.