06.05.2025

Never have to say Goodbye? Current research on the ethics of the digital afterlife

New blog article by Matthias Meitzler

In the wake of recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence, a new growth market has emerged in the form of the digital afterlife industry (DAI). Its providers hold out the prospect of being able to interact with digital simulations of deceased people. Such promises not only fuel the old human dream of overcoming finiteness, but also raise various ethical questions that are still largely unresolved. The latter form the starting point of the „Edilife“ research project conducted at the IZEW. The associated study, which will be published at the end of 2024, takes stock of current applications, sheds light on the current discourse and reflects on various usage scenarios. This results in a number of impulses for a self-determined and responsible approach to AI-based digital life on a technological, economic, political, individual and social level.

To the article: https://uni-tuebingen.de/de/281370