Ada Florentyna Pawlak, an anthropologist of technology, lawyer and art historian at SWPS University in Warsaw, described the possibilities and risks of what is known as “digital immortality.”
Interactive systems can generate statements the deceased never made and may even initiate contact. Unlike a letter or recording, which has a final message, a generative system can keep producing new ones.
Pawlak cautioned against interpreting "immortality" literally. Technology may recreate someone's way of speaking, but there is no basis for assuming that it preserves their inner experience.
Grief tech
An emerging market for AI technologies designed to help people process loss, known as "grief tech," refers to a broader category of tools for commemorating the dead, supporting people in mourning and managing digital legacies.
"It is easy to present grief as suffering that can be remedied by a suitably designed app. Yet the pain of loss can be part of the slow process of reshaping one’s life. It needs time, the presence of other people and room for feelings that do not fit into a timetable for recovery,” Pawlak told Poland's PAP news agency.
She advised monitoring whether interaction with a digital representation helps someone continue with their life and build other relationships, warning of the risk of becoming dependent on such applications.
The technology may also have negative consequences for the deceased person. A system could attribute opinions they never held, reveal private information or use their image in ways they would not have consented to during their lifetime.
Pawlak said that being related to the deceased or owning the files did not automatically settle questions about the permissible use of those materials.
(sp/gs)
Source: PAP