Advances in artificial intelligence have turned the science‑fiction trope of “resurrecting” departed loved ones through AI avatars into reality. This practice has sparked widespread debate in Hong Kong.
Can preserving a deceased person’s voice and likeness with AI offer genuine solace, a place for grief to rest? Or does it cause secondary trauma by prolonging suffering?
1. Emotional Solace: Unfinished Bonds
Many people in fast‑paced Hong Kong only realise their love too late when a family member passes away suddenly. AI technology can help heal these regrets.
Sudden deaths — from stroke or accident, for instance — often deny surviving relatives the chance for a proper goodbye. AI can generate virtual scenarios where mourners may finally voice unspoken words such as “I am sorry” or “I love you”. This aligns with principles of Gestalt therapy, offering psychological closure for unresolved grief.
For many adult children, the greatest fear is not forgetting what their parents looked like, but forgetting the sound of their voice.
2. secondary trauma: Risk of Re‑traumatisation
Yet, this technology comes at a cost. Counsellors and death‑education scholars warn that over‑reliance on these AI tools may cause long‑term secondary trauma.
The core goal of grief counselling is accepting the reality of loss and learning to move forward while holding onto cherished memories. AI, however, creates an illusion: mourners can “summon” the deceased at any time. This may trap people inside virtual simulations, prevent them from facing reality, and draw out normal grief into Prolonged Grief Disorder.
While AI can mimic tone and physical appearance, it cannot replicate a person’s inner self — their unique sense of humour, or subtle nuances of speech in their mother tongue. When the virtual avatar bears a loved one’s face yet gives disjointed, irrelevant replies, survivors face fresh disillusionment: the painful realisation that their loved one is truly gone. This may deepen psychological injury.
3. Preserving Voices and Images with AI: Solace or secondary trauma?
Privacy and Cyber‑fraud Risks
Deepfake‑enabled scams have proliferated globally. Uploading a deceased person’s facial scans, voice recordings or private conversations onto AI platforms raises urgent questions. How can data leaks be prevented? Could bad actors exploit such material to target bereaved families for further fraud?
Legal Grey Areas
Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance primarily protects living individuals. It offers no clear framework governing a deceased person’s rights to voice and likeness. Who holds authority to authorise an AI “re‑creation” of the dead person — a surviving spouse, children, or their own parents?
Conclusion: Technology as a Tool, Love at its Core
AI‑generated voice and likeness reconstructions are fundamentally comparable to flipping through old photo albums or listening to archived voice messages: they are simply more immersive media. The healthiest approach is to treat such AI outputs as transitional aids. They may help people say goodbye during the raw, acute phase of mourning. Yet as emotional wounds gradually heal, mourners ought to set this crutch aside.
“Those who depart never truly leave us. They live on in our genes, our habits and our memories.” The most meaningful form of remembrance is to carry their love and hopes forward, and live fully in the real world.
References
1.American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM‑5‑TR). Section covering Prolonged Grief Disorder (F43.8).
2.World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th Revision). Conditions Specifically Associated with Stress: Prolonged Grief Disorder.
3.Ordinance Chapter 486 of Hong Kong: Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Hong Kong e‑Legislation.
4.Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), Hong Kong. Data Protection Principles: Notes on the Use of Personal Data and Processing of Information Pertaining to Deceased Persons.
5.Anti‑Deception Co‑ordination Centre (ADCC), Hong Kong Police Force. Enforcement Report and Alert on Technological Crime and Deepfake‑Powered AI Scams.
6.Comfort Care Home Care. Practical Guidelines for Community Death Education and Grief‑Counselling Practice: Supporting Bereaved People.
7.Centre on Behavioral Health, HKU. Clinical Psychological Study on Community Attitudes toward Death, Digital Legacy and Resilience in Bereavement Adjustment among Hong Kong Residents.
8.MIT Technology Review. (2024). The Ethics of Volumetric Ghosts: How ‘Grief Tech’ and Gen‑AI Deathbots are Capitalizing on Bereavement.
