AI ‘reanimations’ of the dead raise ethical quandaries
Researchers says that making deepfake facsimiles of the dead – from Agatha Christie to Martin Luther King Jr – is morally problematic
Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in the US in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter.
The previous month, the BBC created a deep-fake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a “maestro course on writing.” Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and “inspire” their “writing journey.”
The use of artificial intelligence to “reanimate” the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction.
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