Death can be very difficult to accept. Although it’s inevitable for all of us, no one really wants to think about it, far less dwell on it. So when it does happen, the grief can be overwhelming and some will do almost anything to limit the pain.
For centuries, there have been fortune tellers and spiritual mediums who claim to be able to communicate with the dead. There are also many people who reach out to them to do just that. Some are very intelligent and/or famous, such as Thomas Edison, Mae West, Queen Victoria, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who created the Sherlock Holmes character), Mary Todd Lincoln, Victoria Woodhull (the first woman to run for president in 1872), and Dan Aykroyd, who not only starred in the movie "Ghostbusters" but came up with the idea for the film and co-wrote the script. Aykroyd had plenty of inspiration. His great-grandfather, Sam Aykroyd, was part of a Spiritualist community in Canada, where he regularly hosted seances in the family’s farmhouse throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
In 2009, Peter Aykroyd (Dan’s father and Sam’s grandson) published a book called "A History of Ghosts," which documents the general history of Spiritualism as well as the Akykroyd family’s role in the community. Discussing Spiritualism in a May 2020 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Dan Aykroyd noted, “We believe — and I guess it's my religion — that you can speak from the other side, and that the consciousness survives.”
I, like Aykroyd, believe that death is not final. My personal belief is that it's a change of dimension and that communication at times can take place. There have been enough incidents of that type of communication to satisfy me. That knowledge and belief is comforting to me. Grieving a loved one’s physical presence no longer existing is a very real burden for those remaining in this dimension, and anything that can lighten the weight of that grief is probably a good thing, as long as it is kept in perspective.
With the reality of ever-increasing AI exposure in our lives, “Grief Tech” is another emerging sector. In China, some firms are claiming to be able to “digitally revive” a person’s deceased loved ones using artificial intelligence (AI). Using technology like portraiture and photography, they are seeking ways to help people navigate the minefield of grief.
Grief-stricken Seakoo Wu and his wife are some of the many people who are now turning to AI to create “avatars” of their dearly departed. When their 22-year-old son, Xuanmo, died while attending college in the UK, they were devastated by the news. Wu gathered photos, audio recordings, videos, and any other type of information that he believed made up his son's life. Then he and his wife spent thousands of euros looking for and hiring AI firms to clone his face and voice.
According to Wu, the first thing required to lessen the pain of grief is a change in perspective.
“Is there a solution for the pain of losing a loved one? First, you need to change your perspective," he says. "For example, the idea that there are no connections between the departed loved ones and yourself can be changed. The connections definitely exist. If you can believe in this mindset, your pain may lessen.”
Some of the dialogue created by Xuanmo’s avatar was never spoken by their son. For instance, this bit of advice was created by AI: “I know how difficult it is for you. Every day, every moment, I wish I could be by your side, giving you warmth and strength. Choose courage, choose gratitude, choose positivity. This will make our lives better despite the losses. That’s what I want to see the most from heaven.”
At some point in the future, Wu wants to construct a fully realistic replica of his dead son that dwells in virtual space and that behaves with his exact mannerisms. He has hired a team to do just that by creating a database that contains mountains of information about his son. Wu hopes to turn the information into algorithms that can precisely imitate his son’s thinking and speech patterns.
In a vow to his son, Wu said, “One day, son, we will all reunite in the metaverse.”
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I know grief is hard and losing a loved one is a nightmare; however, grief also makes many people vulnerable, and vulnerability encourages exploitation. Zhang Zewei is the founder of the AI firm Super Brain, and if you listen to his statement concerning these vulnerable people, he sounds more like a salesman than someone who brings comfort.
“There are so many people in China, many with emotional needs, which gives us an advantage when it comes to market demand,” he says.
Market demand? Sounds like someone is licking his chops about making profits on the sorrow of others. Believe it or not, some Chinese firms claim they have “digitally revived” thousands of deceased individuals with as little as 30 seconds of audiovisual information. Now, I don’t know about you, but I shudder to think that my personality could be recreated from 30 seconds of information. Especially if the 30 seconds were captured after an especially egregious referee's call during a football game involving my favorite team.
Some grief tech clients are like Wu, grieving parents who want to spend more time with their deceased children, but they also include a heartbroken woman who wants to recreate her ex-boyfriend.
Experts aren’t convinced, warning that even though these AI avatars may provide comfort, more research and information is needed to understand the psychological and ethical implications.
Tal Morse, a visiting research fellow at the Center for Death and Society at Britain’s University of Bath, asks a very intriguing question: “What happens if they do things that will contaminate the memory of the person they are supposed to represent?”
Suffering the loss of a loved one is devastating enough, but trying to replace them with a digital creation is in many ways opening Pandora’s box. Like any medication, there are limits to what is acceptable. Those limits, even though not yet well defined with AI, need to be approached carefully.
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