Would you want a deceased family member to stay by your side, listening to your complaints and chatting with you, even if they were just a digital ghost created by artificial intelligence (AI)?
This question captured the attention of the web in China in the days around Qingming Festival, a time of the year when Chinese people pay homage to the deceased. It emerged in response to myriad commercial services claiming to create digital replicas of people’s deceased loved ones.
A man from southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was recently able to see his deceased grandfather again after providing an artificial intelligence (AI) technology company with photos, voice recordings and customized wallpapers.
The 29-year-old, who chose to remain anonymous, told Xinhua that he regretted not being able to say goodbye to his grandfather for years. Now, every evening after work, he spends a few minutes chatting with his “digital grandfather”.
“I tell him my problems at work, and he shares his experiences as a soldier with me. Even though these conversations are based on the information I have provided, I am still pleasantly surprised because he talks to me like he used to do when I was a child,” he said. “It’s a great comfort to me.”
Numerous AI “resurrection” services are available on China’s e-commerce platforms, with prices ranging from 10 yuan (about $1.40) to over 10,000 yuan.
Zhang Yuqiang, co-founder of an AI technology company based in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, has noticed an explosive increase in requests for the company’s “digital relative” services, launched in February, ahead of the Qingming Festival which fell on Thursday.
The company provides two such services: it can clone a voice and image to create a video that conveys greetings, and it can create a digital clone capable of holding simple conversations.
“Creating a digital relative requires audio recordings, photos and information about the deceased individual’s life experiences. The more data provided, the more similar the digital replica will be to the real person,” Zhang said.
Such reports were met with mixed feelings on Chinese social media. Many users said they were moved by a video in which a blogger used AI face-swapping software to “resurrect” his deceased father and console his ailing grandmother. And an AI-generated viral video of a deceased famous singer greeting her fans has prompted the singer’s family to call for it to be removed, saying she has “reopened old wounds”.
Liang Jia, a psychiatrist and member of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said talking to digital replicas helps people maintain an emotional connection with the deceased and allows those who have lost loved ones unexpectedly to complete the grieving process .
Some respondents expressed concerns about over-reliance on virtual reality. “Talking to digital relatives would only reopen my wounds by reminding me that they are dead,” said a 20-year-old university student in Guangdong province who recently lost his grandfather.
This technology could also address legal issues. “If the technology is used to ‘resurrect’ unrelated individuals or public figures without appropriate authorization, it could constitute an infringement, or it could be used by criminals to commit fraud or defame the individual in question,” said Ning Naiming, a lawyer based in Nanning.
Feng Gui, a member of the China Law Society, said grieving relatives in China can legally ask a company to “resurrect” a deceased individual using AI technology. “However, if there is disagreement among close relatives whether to ‘resurrect’ the individual via AI, then a dispute arises.”
Shen Yang, a professor of AI and big data at Tsinghua University, said the advancement of AI technology has generated the question of whether “digital resurrection” should be a legal right.
Reversing the question posed at the beginning of this article, would you agree to an AI that uses your voice and image to keep your family company when you are no longer here?
“Does everyone want their image to remain in the world after death? This may be a new question in the age of AI,” Shen said. (Xin)
© Xinhua
Tags: China Digital resurrection services generate debate love death
