For the last few years, I have been writing about grief and digital afterlife technology and the companies that create photorealistic digital twins, chatbots, synthetic voices, AI video legacies, and holograms. The entertainment industry has been a driver of innovation, creating digital personas of Tupak Shakur and ABBA. In only the last few weeks, Elvis, Edith Piaf, and Jimmy Stewart have been resurrected or de-aged for entertainment. Harrison Ford was de-aged by 40 years for his role as Indiana Jones in last year’s Indian Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Ginger Liu is the founder of Ginger Media & Entertainment, a Ph.D. Researcher in artificial intelligence and visual arts media — specifically death tech, digital afterlife, AI death and grief practices, AI photography, entertainment, security, and policy, and an author, writer, artist photographer, and filmmaker. Listen to the Podcast — The Digital Afterlife of Grief.