“GRIEFBOTS” which allow relatives to talk to their loved ones from beyond the grave are becoming big business.
But there are fears these death avatars could just be the start of a disturbing new era.
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The technology is predicted to eventually become part of everyday life, with developers saying the digital ghosts can help people cope with the loss of a loved one.
But critics warn that these often sanitised versions of the dead can leave family members emotionally scarred — and could be used in deepfake situations.
Technology ethics specialist Dr Tomasz Hollanek told the Sun on Sunday: “The ethical concerns extend well beyond grief and can have a serious impact on the living, even when they are not in mourning.
“Children are a particular worry — they may struggle to fully understand or interpret a relationship with a bot, making them especially vulnerable to confusion or distress.
“Family members can also be affected when they hold radically different views on how someone should be remembered — leading to conflict or emotional pain unrelated to the interaction with the bot.
“Our research highlights these risks and calls for stronger safeguards, particularly as the field remains largely unregulated.
Digital footprint
“We recommend bots be kept within clearly defined digital spaces, ensuring they cannot unexpectedly haunt people in other online environments such as social media.”
Last month the late Ozzy Osbourne, Tina Turner, Freddie Mercury and Jimi Hendrix all seemed to have been beamed down from heaven, in the form of AI images, on to the stage during a Rod Stewart gig in the States.
Some fans thought it just a lovely tribute to the legends but others regarded it as tasteless.
Controversy also erupted when Jim Acosta, a former CNN White House correspondent, “interviewed” a digital recreation of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in 2018, at the age of 17, in a high-school shooting in Florida.
The avatar of the teenager was commissioned by his parents Manuel and Patricia, who said it was a blessing to hear his voice again.
In an interview, the avatar was asked what happened to him and in a strangely metallic voice it replied: “I appreciate your curiosity.
“I was taken from this world too soon due to gun violence while at school. It’s important to talk about these issues so we can create a safer future for everyone.”
And in June, Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of social media forum Reddit, used X/Twitter to share an animation of his late mother hugging him when he was a child, created from a photo.
The surging griefbot market hit £1.2BILLION in 2022 — and is set to quadruple this year.
Grief tech uses our digital footprint — texts, photos, videos, emails, and social media accounts — to make replicas of the dead person.
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This can be in the form of an AI image. Or it may recreate their voice, by mimicking accent, tone and pitch.
It could copy the way they chatted, by looking at emails and other messages. Or it may be all of this.
A YouGov poll in 2023 found 14 per cent of respondents would find comfort in interacting with a digital version of a loved one who had died. The younger the respondent, the more likely they were to be open to the idea.
AI platforms such as ChatGPT can already be used to make often unrealistic simulations of loved ones. But it is not always a success.
Kyley Dickenson, 38, tried AI to remember her late sister Jody, who died in 2021 aged 31.
But Jody, blind from age ten, was rendered with her eyes open.
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Kyley, from Oxfordshire, told us: “It was my desperate longing to feel her again. I tried using ChatGPT to replicate her. But Jody was unique, and no AI could capture her features.”
She now regrets what she did, saying: “Griefbots exploit that longing, tricking your mind into thinking it’s possible. If it helps someone cope, that’s wonderful. But grief exists for a reason, and sometimes you need to sit with it.”
Gloucestershire-based grief psychotherapist Dipti Tait says digital ghosts do not help people heal — and can instead haunt them.
She said: “This tech toys with emotions and heartbreak and can turn into torment, and that is terrifying. It is like pulling off the grief scab and rubbing salt into the emotional wound over and over.
“We risk trapping the grieving in limbo — half reality, half illusion.
“It blurs truth with harmful deepfakes, keeping love frozen in a loop that can delay the most vital step of recovery from mourning — which is acceptance.”
This tech toys with emotions and heartbreak and can turn into torment, and that is terrifying. It is like pulling off the grief scab and rubbing salt into the emotional wound over and over
Dipti Tait
Dr Nathan Mladin, a researcher at the Theos think-tank, warns griefbots could “distort and impede the normal process of grieving”.
He said: “Instead of helping people come to terms with the loss of a loved one, these systems have the potential to turn grief into a form of addiction.”
At the very cheapest end of the market, you can resurrect a loved one using an app for as little as £2.20. More advanced, interactive avatars that move and can converse cost thousands of pounds.
‘Keep Mum’s voice alive’
Platforms such as Lumish offer to make “an avatar of a deceased loved one that listens, understands, and guides you through healing”.
The company says UK users — who pay £60 a year to subscribe — had described the service as a “safe place to talk” and a way to “keep my mum’s voice alive”.
Alexander Langbort, its product manager, said: “The goal is to help people not only preserve memories but share them, as well as create new moments with digital avatars of their loved ones.”
Filmmaker Justin Harrison was so desperate to preserve his relationship with his mum Melodi that he set up his company You, Only Virtual (YOV), to create an interactive digital version of a human, called a “versona”.
Before Melodi died in 2022 of cancer, aged 60, she agreed he could turn her into a versona and now he regularly has “conversations” with her, and “meetings” using augmented-reality glasses.
YOV subscribers send and receive texts to and from their versonas, or pay £15 for AI phone calls.
The company plans to roll out virtual avatars in the near future, to allow people to “see” departed loved ones.
Versonas can be updated with knowledge of current events — and remember previous discussions, creating an “ever- evolving sense of comfort”.
Justin, 42, said: “People’s reaction often is that it’s creepy. But this kind of tech will become as prolific as buying a headstone or urn.
“For thousands of years we have been commemorating our dead and speaking to slabs of granite — or setting people on fire and putting them up on a shelf. We do a lot already which is strange, frankly.”
Cyber-psychologist Elaine Kasket says AI resurrections may soon feel like a Zoom call with your lost loved one.
But she warns: “Clones of the dead can be misused for fraud.
“The dead can’t raise the alarm, and consequences for family and friends can range from inconvenient, to expensive, to traumatic.
