AI Afterlife: Voices from the Digital Beyond

“I want to abolish death. No one should ever really have to say goodbye,” says Justin Harrison, founder of ‘You, Only Virtual’.

His app enables the bereaved to communicate with virtual clones of their deceased loved ones - via text message or even by phone call. What sounded like science fiction just a few years ago is now reality. The documentary follows people who find comfort in this technology. For J. R. Adams, whose mother was like a best friend to him, the virtual exchange is a way of allowing her to continue to be part of his life. Jason and Melissa Gowin, both seriously ill, create virtual doubles of themselves so that their children can actively maintain memories of them after their death. But there are also critical voices. “To think that a virtual image can really heal the loss seems too simplistic to me,” says sociologist Holly Prigerson. She sees technology as a temporary support - comforting, yes, but no substitute for actually saying goodbye and coming to terms with the loss.