“Resurrecting” the dead has become a popular application of generative AI in China. It’s one element of an AI gold rush in the country, as entrepreneurs race to invent new consumer-facing apps on top of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. While LLMs could generate text messages, these businesses give the bots cloned voices and appearances that resemble those of the deceased.

It’s part of a global trend that has made it easier for people to create customized avatars featuring personas of their loved ones, celebrities, or themselves. Users around the world have shared stories of training ChatGPT to mimic their deceased family members. In Taiwan, a tech startup recently launched an app that can create AI avatars of deceased pets. U.S.-based startup HereAfter AI offers to preserve users’ personas after death if they upload recordings of their memories.

…In other cases, creators who make avatars of dead celebrities without consulting their families are being accused of invasion of privacy. The father of Qiao Renliang, a pop star who died by suicide, said in March that he was disturbed by AI-generated videos of his son. In April, short-video site Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, warned creators against “resurrecting” the deceased without families’ permission.

Read more:

Zhou, V. (2024, April 17). AI “deathbots” are helping people in China grieve. Rest of World. https://restofworld.org/2024/china-ai-chatbot-dead-relatives/