A Cambridge professor predicts AI could soon replace cemeteries by enabling people to talk with digital versions of deceased loved ones, though experts warn of psychological and ethical risks.
A University of Cambridge researcher has predicted that artificial intelligence could soon replace cemeteries by offering people digital interactions with deceased loved ones. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, said by 2030 people will “have dead loved ones in [their] pockets” and could communicate with them “almost 24/7.”
She noted that cemeteries may come to feel “old-fashioned” once AI-generated avatars of the dead become widely available. “It won’t be like having your loved one on a video call or in an app, with whom you can talk whenever you want,” she explained, adding the technology is moving from “a promise” to a “real, growing market.”
The so-called “digital afterlife industry” is already emerging in the US and China, where firms like Replika and StoryFile use data footprints to recreate personalities. Experts, however, warn of privacy issues and stress that mourning remains vital to human development.