Imagine a future where you get a notification on your phone that your late father’s digital bot is ready. This virtual way to talk to your dead loved ones (albeit via a virtual reality headset) is like stepping into a science fiction movie that’s both thrilling and a little creepy.
You will find yourself riding a roller coaster of emotions when you talk to the digital version of your father. Secrets and stories that you don’t even know will be revealed and it will change everything about the deceased’s true personality as you know it.
This is not an imaginary or hypothetical scenario. The afterlife digital industry is booming. Many companies have promised to virtually resurrect dead people based on their digital consumption.
From artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and virtual avatars to holograms, this technology offers a strange mix of both comfort and anxiety. It blurs the lines between past and present, memory and reality by connecting us to deeply personal experiences.
As this unique digital industry evolves, it raises significant ethical and emotional challenges. These include concerns about consent, privacy and the psychological impact on the living person.
Bringing men to life digitally is no longer a hypothetical idea, but how do we deal with these concerns?
What is the Digital Afterlife Industry?
Thanks to virtual reality and AI technologies, it is now possible to bring your dead back to life in the digital world. Companies in the aforementioned industry use data from dead people’s social media posts, emails, text messages and voice recordings to create digital personas that can interact with the living.
The number of players in the digital afterlife industry, i.e. service providers, is increasing.
The Hereafter AI company allows users to record stories and messages during their lives that can be accessed by their loved ones after their death. Another company, MyWishes, has the ability to send after-death messages that the person recorded during his or her lifetime.
Hanson Robotics has created robotic structures that interact with people using memories and personality traits of the deceased.
Project December allows its users to communicate with their deceased loved ones over text messages through deep AI.
Productive AI also plays an important role in the digital afterlife industry. These technologies create highly realistic and interactive digital personas. But so much realism can blur the line between truth and fiction. This may be a new experience for the user but can also cause emotional and psychological distress for them.
Misuse of technology
Through these services of the companies, people can get a chance to cope with the grief of losing their loved ones and keep in touch with them even after their death. Hearing your loved one’s voice or seeing them virtually can be comforting and help you cope with the loss of losing them.
For some of us, this virtual appearance of our deceased can also serve as therapy. They make us feel that they are around us even after death and also provide an opportunity to create new positive memories.
Similarly, for some people, this emotional response can be negative and instead of reducing grief, it can intensify. If loved ones are facing the AI creation even if they don’t want to, then there is a fear of harming the psychology of the living person. It can also be called ‘digital fear’.
Other important issues and ethical concerns surrounding this technology include consent, autonomy and privacy.
For example, what if the deceased person did not give permission for their data to be used to digitally bring them back to life after death?
There is also a risk that the data may be misused or manipulated. Companies can also misuse them for commercial gain and use them as advertising products or services.
Digitally, messages can be sent or behaviors created that are completely antithetical to the personality of the deceased.
Monitoring is required
We have to upgrade our legal framework to address the concerns of this fast growing industry. We need to address issues like digital estate planning that determines who inherits ownership of a deceased person’s digital data and memory.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) recognizes postmortem privacy rights but faces challenges in enforcement.
Social media platforms control access to data of deceased users. Often some clauses against the wishes of the heirs complicate matters. Limited platform practices hinder GDPR implementation. Comprehensive protection demands that treaty law be re-examined to be consistent with human rights.
The digital afterlife industry offers to preserve the memories of loved ones and provide a form of comfort to the living, but it also raises ethical and emotional concerns. Both the living and the dead can be respected by enforcing codes and ethical principles to ensure immortality of the deceased in the digital world and not harm humanity.
What can we do?
Researchers have proposed several ethical guidelines. Some of the recommendations include informing people and obtaining documented consent for creating digital persons before they die, age restrictions to protect vulnerable people, transparency and strong data privacy and security measures. Clear measures should be taken to ensure
Drawing from an ethical framework in archaeology, a 2018 study proposed preserving the digital personhood of the deceased and suggested regulations in virtual re-creation.
Dialogue between policy makers, the afterlife industry and academics is essential to develop ethical and regulatory solutions. Companies providing services must also offer ways for users to respectfully end interactions with digital personalities.
Through careful and responsible development, we can create a future where digital afterlife technologies honor dead loved ones.
As we move into this new technological, new world, it is critical to balance the benefits of connecting with loved ones against the potential risks and ethical dilemmas.
By doing so we can ensure that the digital afterlife industry develops in a way that both honors the memory of the deceased and contributes to the emotional well-being of the living.
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