The Ethics of Digital Immortality: Analyzing the Psychological, Social, and Legal Ramifications of AI-Powered Ghostbots or Digital Avatars That Mimic Deceased Individuals

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Autore principale: Kalanke, Tanmay Rahul
Natura: Recurso digital
Lingua:inglese
Pubblicazione: Zenodo 2025
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author Kalanke, Tanmay Rahul
author_facet Kalanke, Tanmay Rahul
contents <p>The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies capable of recreating the voices, faces, and personalities of deceased individuals has initiated a new era of "digital immortality." These entities—commonly known as ghostbots, griefbots, or posthumous avatars—use personal data, large language models (LLMs), and generative AI to simulate interaction with the dead. This phenomenon redefines how people grieve, remember, and relate to those lost, while raising profound ethical, psychological, social, and legal challenges. This paper offers an extensive analysis of the implications of digital immortality, integrating interdisciplinary research from cognitive psychology, AI ethics, human-computer interaction (HCI), and data governance. Through empirical examples such as Microsoft’s chatbot patent, Replika’s grief models, and HereAfter AI, it evaluates both therapeutic potential and potential harms including emotional manipulation, consent violations, and posthumous privacy breaches. The study concludes by proposing a set of ethical frameworks, governance models, and design recommendations to ensure that digital immortality technologies evolve responsibly within humanistic and legal boundaries.</p>
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spellingShingle The Ethics of Digital Immortality: Analyzing the Psychological, Social, and Legal Ramifications of AI-Powered Ghostbots or Digital Avatars That Mimic Deceased Individuals
Kalanke, Tanmay Rahul
Artificial Intelligence Ethics
Digital Immortality
Ghostbots
Grief Technology
Posthumous Privacy
Digital Resurrection
Human–AI Interaction
Psychological Impacts of AI
AI and Death
Post-Mortem Data Governance
Ethical AI Design
Digital Legacy
Data Protection Law
AI Avatars
Technological Mourning
AI Ethics
Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)
Technology and Society
Digital Humanities
Law and Technology
<p>The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies capable of recreating the voices, faces, and personalities of deceased individuals has initiated a new era of "digital immortality." These entities—commonly known as ghostbots, griefbots, or posthumous avatars—use personal data, large language models (LLMs), and generative AI to simulate interaction with the dead. This phenomenon redefines how people grieve, remember, and relate to those lost, while raising profound ethical, psychological, social, and legal challenges. This paper offers an extensive analysis of the implications of digital immortality, integrating interdisciplinary research from cognitive psychology, AI ethics, human-computer interaction (HCI), and data governance. Through empirical examples such as Microsoft’s chatbot patent, Replika’s grief models, and HereAfter AI, it evaluates both therapeutic potential and potential harms including emotional manipulation, consent violations, and posthumous privacy breaches. The study concludes by proposing a set of ethical frameworks, governance models, and design recommendations to ensure that digital immortality technologies evolve responsibly within humanistic and legal boundaries.</p>
title The Ethics of Digital Immortality: Analyzing the Psychological, Social, and Legal Ramifications of AI-Powered Ghostbots or Digital Avatars That Mimic Deceased Individuals
topic Artificial Intelligence Ethics
Digital Immortality
Ghostbots
Grief Technology
Posthumous Privacy
Digital Resurrection
Human–AI Interaction
Psychological Impacts of AI
AI and Death
Post-Mortem Data Governance
Ethical AI Design
Digital Legacy
Data Protection Law
AI Avatars
Technological Mourning
AI Ethics
Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)
Technology and Society
Digital Humanities
Law and Technology
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17602763