AI-generated videos are one of the most controversial things to come out of the generative AI boom. From copyright violations and disinformation to the digital slop-ification of the internet, there is plenty of reason to be wary of. But it seems there are some slivers of hope, too. In Russia, for example, family members are paying more money than an average streaming or AI service to create memorial videos of dead soldiers.
The big picture
The family members of soldiers who lost their lives in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine are using AI services to create farewell videos depicting them with loved ones. “Using neural networks and careful editing, we recreate the moment of reunion and release them into the heavens,” says the advertisement of a Russian company shared on Telegram.
In the videos, the digital recreation of a deceased soldier can be walking the stairs to heaven, hugging a family member, or kissing their partner. The cost of these videos ranges roughly between $20 and $80, depending on the length of the clips and whether you want custom audio, as well. The audio clips are also generated using AI, based on the recordings supplied by friends and family members.
“For Yelena Kirghizova, the widow of the officer in the video, the AI-made video was about closure. In an obituary she wrote to accompany the clip, she explained that his body was never returned to the family — a problem that has long plagued the Russian army, which often fails to track down missing soldiers and leaves relatives searching for answers for months,” says a report by The Washington Post.
The big shift
These farewell videos that are attracting millions of views are tied to a social project called “Final Meeting” on the Russian social media platform VK, or VKontakte. On the more macabre side of things, The Post recently reported how AI facial recognition software was being used to identify dead Russian soldiers. The trend of AI resurrection, however, is not alien.
On the contrary, it’s a huge trend in China, and many companies, as well as independent creators, are making a bank out of the demand. In China, companies such as Silicon Intelligence are getting increasingly popular for offering services where pictures of the deceased or aging family members are animated using AI to create moving digital mosaics or short clips.
In some cases, however, family members and loved ones are also looking for company. To that end, they are paying companies to create an AI chatbot or digital avatar based on the memory and characteristics of a certain person. The scientific community has referred to this techno-cultural shift as “deadbots” and has raised alarms about their risks, as well.
