Digital Afterlife

Abstract In this episode, we explore the emerging world of technologies that allow individuals to continue existing in digital form even after death. From grief bots and posthumous avatars to AI-enabled holograms, we examine how people are preserving voices, memories, and personalities through the use of artificial intelligence. Typically, these digital personas are built from multimodal data, including voice recordings, videos, photos, written texts, and social media footprints, collected during a person’s lifetime. After death, this data is used to simulate responses, expressions, and even personality traits. The resulting avatars can appear eerily lifelike, engaging in conversations that feel authentic, even when discussing topics the deceased never directly addressed during their lifetime.Dr Leah Henrickson, Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures at the University of Queensland, Dr Anna Puzio, Researcher at the University of Twente and UC Berkeley, and Dr Patricia Živković, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen, unpack pressing ethical, legal, and social questions raised in this rapidly evolving field. Whether viewed as comforting, uncanny, or controversial, these technologies are redefining our perspective on mortality and remembrance. Join us as we navigate the blurred lines between life, death, and the digital beyond.Death & Law - Interdisciplinary Explorations | School of Law | The University of Aberdeen Biographies Dr Leah HenricksonDr Leah Henrickson is Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Reading Computer-Generated Texts, published by Cambridge University Press (2021), and other peer-reviewed articles on how we understand text generation systems and output, artificial intelligence, and digital media ecosystems. Dr Henrickson also studies digital storytelling for critical self-reflection, community building, and commercial benefit, and is the author of Digital Storytelling: An Introduction, published by Polity (2025).Link to profile: https://communication-arts.uq.edu.au/profile/7352/leah-henrickson Dr Anna Puzio Dr Anna Puzio is a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Before these positions, Dr Puzio worked in Frankfurt am Main, Vienna, Oxford, and Cambridge. Dr Puzio works at the intersection of ethics, emerging technologies, and the human-nonhuman relationship — including religion and AI — and is part of the Dutch research programme on the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies. Dr Puzio studied Catholic theology, German studies, and philosophy in Münster and Munich, and received her doctorate from the Munich School of Philosophy in the doctoral program on the anthropology of transhumanism.Link to profile: https://www.anna-puzio.com/en Dr Patricia ŽivkovićDr Patricia Živković is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen. Before joining the University of Aberdeen, she served as Head of Legal at an IT company and worked as counsel at a law firm. Her research in the intersection of technology and law primarily focuses on the regulation of biometric data, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence. She leads the Humanity and AI Research Group at the University of Aberdeen and co-leads the project on ‘Death in Law – Interdisciplinary Explorations’.Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/patricia.zivkovic Additional Resources: · Henrickson, L. (2023). Chatting with the dead: The hermeneutics of thanabots. Media, Culture & Society, 45(5), 949-966. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221147626 (Original work published 2023)· Puzio, Anna, 'AI and the Disruption of Personhood', in Philipp Hacker (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford, online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0016, · Puzio, Anna: When the Digital Continues After Death. Ethical Perspectives on Death Tech and the Digital Afterlife. In: Communicatio Socialis 56/3 (2023), 427–436. https://doi.org/10.5771/0010-3497-2023-3-427. Online: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0010-3497-2023-3/communicatio-socialis-comsoc-jahrgang-56-2023-heft-3?page=1 · Iglesias, S., Earp, B. D., Voinea, C., Mann, S. P., Zahiu, A., Jecker, N. S., & Savulescu, J. (2024). Digital Doppelgängers and Lifespan Extension: What Matters? The American Journal of Bioethics, 25(2), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2416133