Skip to main content

It’s happening: people are recreating deceased loved ones with AI

It might sound like science fiction, but undertakers and tech-savvy people in China have already started using AI tools to create realistic avatars of people who have passed away.

Using a blend of tools such as the ChatGPT chatbot and the image generator Midjourney — in addition to photos and voice recordings — funeral companies are starting to fashion a rendition of the deceased loved one that grieving families and friends can “communicate” with, according to Guangzhou Daily via the Straits Times.

How AI is already letting people speak to the dead
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This technology was timed to make its debut around the recent Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, which was observed by Ethnic Chinese people globally on April 5. Traditionally, those in China use this public holiday to honor the dead by cleaning and decorating grave sites, burning joss paper, and making food offerings, the publication noted.

Recommended Videos

However, as times modernize, people are finding more technologically advanced ways to deal with the death of someone they care about. Bloggers on the Chinese video-sharing website Bilibili have shared their experience using AI to speak to their loved ones who have died.

One blogger, Wu Wuliu, uploaded a video to the platform in March called “Generating my grandma’s virtual digital human using AI tools” that detailed how he used ChatGPT, AI painting, and speech synthesis to create a moving avatar of his late grandmother. He discussed growing up in a single-parent family and being raised by his father and grandmother, as well as his regrets about not being able to see her one last time before she died. Thanks to technology, he was able to.

“The video I made is mainly to ease my regrets through the use of AI technology and help me to not think so much of the past,” he said in the blog post as reported by The Straits Times.

Similarly, Shanghai Fushouyun, a company known for its digital funeral services, began hosting funerals featuring AI technologies in January 2022. The first funeral of this kind was for a Chinese surgeon who had many colleagues and students that were upset at not being able to say goodbye in person. They were, however, able to speak to an AI-generated version of him at the ceremony.

“We hope to let the living understand that death is not the end of life. People want to use AI to recover the deceased because they need to release their emotions,” Yu Hao, Fushouyun chief executive, told Guangzhou Daily.

The executive warns that there could be an issue if people end up drowning in their emotions instead. However, most have reported a positive experience with using AI to communicate with their dead loved ones. Some other funeral companies are even working toward using AI to help people grieve their pets who have died.

Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh is a Computing Writer at Digital Trends. She covers a range of topics in the computing space, including…
ChatGPT models explained: How to use each, according to OpenAI
ChatGPT models list.

Although the entire AI boom was triggered by just one ChatGPT model, a lot has changed since 2022. New models have been released, old models have been replaced, updates roll out and roll back again when they go wrong -- the world of LLMs is pretty busy. At the moment, we have six OpenAI LLMs to choose from and, as both users and Sam Altman are aware, their names are completely useless.

Most people have probably just been using the newest model they can get their hands on, but it turns out that each of the six current models is good at different things -- and OpenAI has finally decided to tell us which model to use for which tasks.

Read more
5 AI apps with deep research features to rival ChatGPT
Deep Research option for ChatGPT.

Artificial intelligence brands are in fierce competition, and their next steps are to make AI tools smarter by allowing them to execute deep search functions that can provide expert-level results and analyze larger amounts of information in a shorter time. Several companies have announced deep research features in recent weeks and months that excel in areas such as finance, science, marketing, and academics. Research that would have taken a person weeks or months can be achieved in a fraction of the time, with a properly detailed prompt. 

Deep research features are considered AI agents that can work independently and will allow you to make a query and let the AI process for several minutes while it generates the information and returns when it is finished to display the results. They are considered the first steps toward the concept of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which some define as a model that can process a query based on novel data that it has not been trained on, and it can produce unique content. However, we’re not quite there yet, and the main premise of deep research tools is processing large amounts of data and making it easier to understand.

Read more
Meta’s new AI app lets you share your favorite prompts with friends
Meta AI WhatsApp widget.

Meta has been playing the AI game for a while now, but unlike ChatGPT, its models are usually integrated into existing platforms rather than standalone apps. That trend ends today -- the company has launched the Meta AI app and it appears to do everything ChatGPT does and more.

Powered by the latest Llama 4 model, the app is designed to "get to know you" using the conversations you have and information from your public Meta profiles. It's designed to work primarily with voice, and Meta says it has improved responses to feel more personal and conversational. There's experimental voice tech included too, which you can toggle on and off to test -- the difference is that apparently, full-duplex speech technology generates audio directly, rather than reading written responses.

Read more