Envision receiving a message that your deceased father’s “digital immortal” bot is ready. This futuristic scenario—chatting with a virtual version of your loved one through a VR headset—feels like stepping into a sci-fi movie, both thrilling and eerie.
Interacting with this digital dad puts you on an emotional rollercoaster, uncovering secrets and stories that reshape your memories of the real person. This isn’t a distant possibility; the digital afterlife industry is evolving quickly, with companies promising to create virtual reconstructions of deceased individuals from their digital footprints.
Utilizing AI chatbots, virtual avatars, and holograms, this technology offers a unique blend of comfort and disruption, pulling us into deeply personal experiences that blur the lines between past and present, memory and reality.
As the digital afterlife industry grows, it raises significant ethical and emotional challenges, including concerns about consent, privacy, and the psychological impact on the living.
What is the digital afterlife industry?
VR and AI technologies are making virtual reconstructions of loved ones possible. Companies use data from social media posts, emails, text messages, and voice recordings to create digital personas that can interact with the living.
Though still niche, the digital afterlife industry is expanding. HereAfter allows users to record stories and messages during their lifetime, accessible posthumously by loved ones. MyWishes enables sending pre-scheduled messages after death, maintaining a presence in the lives of the living. Hanson Robotics has created robotic busts that use the memories and personality traits of the deceased to interact with people. Project December provides access to “deep AI” for text-based conversations with those who have passed away.
Generative AI plays a crucial role in this industry, enabling the creation of highly realistic and interactive digital personas. However, this realism can blur the line between reality and simulation, enhancing the user experience but also potentially causing emotional and psychological distress.
