AI helps bereaved in China

 As millions of people across China travelled to the graves of ancestors to pay their respects on tomb-sweeping day - an annual opportunity to honour and maintain the graves of the dead - a new way of remembering, and reviving, their beloved relatives was being born.

For as little as 20 yuan (£2.20), Chinese web users can create a moving digital avatar of their loved one, according to some online services. To mark this year's tomb-sweeping day... some mourners turned to artificial intelligence to commune with the departed.

At the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, the Taiwanese singer Bao Xiaobai used AI to "resurrect" his 22-year-old daughter, who died in 2022. Despite having only a recording of her speaking three sentences of English, Bao reportedly spent more than a year experimenting with AI before creating a video of her singing happy birthday to her mother, which he published in January.

"People around me think I've lost my mind," Bao said in an interview with Chinese media, but added: "I want to hear her voice again."...

Zhinu
unknown artist
Photo Credit:Durham University [CC BY-NC]

Last month, SenseTime, one of China's leading AI companies, showed off its skills in this area with a speech by the firm's founder, Tang Xiao'ou, at its annual  general meeting.

"Hello everyone, we meet again," Tang told employees. "Last year was tough for everyone, but I believe difficult things will eventually pass."

Tang's 2023 was particularly difficult, because he died on 15 December at the age of 55. His speech was given by a digital clone, which had been trained by SenseTime's engineers using a large language model machine-learning programme trained on video and audio clips of Tang.

Tomb-sweeping day provided an opportunity for this kind of technology. One software developer said on Weibo that he had already helped more than 600 families "achieve reunion" with their loved ones this year.

But it is not just the bereaved who are using AI to resurrect their loved ones. Social media users recently used old footage of the singer Qiao Renliang, who killed himself in 2016, to create new content starring him. In one video, the AI clone of Qiao says: "Actually, I never really left." But Qiao's parents were outraged. His father was quoted saying that the video "exposed scars" and was created without the family's consent.

Some lawyers in China argue that such content should be banned if it causes "mental pain" to the relatives of the deceased. But as grievers gathered for tomb-sweeping day, China's digital enthusiasts are likely to experiment with digital afterlives faster than living policy makers can regulate them.

(Amy Hawkins, The Guardian, 2024)

A fascinating insight into how AI is being utilised and some of the dilemmas it will pose. Also, good to learn about an annual event in China that is not part of our culture in the UK - namely - a tomb-sweeping day.

Shoulao Riding a Deer
unknown artist
Photo Credit: National Museum of Scotland [CC BY-NC-ND]