AI ‘resurrections’ test grief’s limits

The dead may soon have more to say than what they left behind in letters, photographs and recorded messages.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is opening a new frontier in the business of remembering the dead, allowing grieving families to interact with digital recreations of departed loved ones that can speak in familiar voices, answer questions and, in some cases, generate responses based on their personalities and personal histories.

The technology, increasingly described as griefbots, deadbots or digital afterlife services, has prompted Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David to question whether it helps people cope with loss or makes accepting death more difficult.

David recently expressed concern over funeral service providers in the United States offering what they call “AI Afterlife” or “AI Hereafter.”

The services can use diaries, photographs, social media posts, videos, voice recordings and other personal information to recreate a deceased person’s likeness and manner of speaking.

“The question is: Are we preserving the memory of our loved ones, or creating an illusion that they have never really died?” David asked.

The technology is no longer confined to science fiction.

In 2022, Holocaust educator Marina Smith appeared to answer questions from mourners at her own funeral through StoryFile, a technology developed by a company co-founded by her son.

The unseen

Smith had recorded answers to hundreds of questions before her death. The system selected relevant recordings when guests asked questions, creating the impression of a conversation.

Other applications go further, using generative AI to produce responses that the deceased never actually recorded.

A September 2025 Reuters report described how a bereaved man used AI voice technology to recreate his dead father’s voice and generate new messages from an old hospital recording. The report also identified a growing industry that includes StoryFile, HereAfter AI and other digital legacy services.

But the technology raises questions that extend beyond its novelty.

A 2024 study by University of Cambridge researchers Tomasz Hollanek and Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basinska warned that digital recreations could misrepresent the dead, exploit their personal information and interfere with grieving. They called for safeguards covering consent, transparency and the eventual retirement of digital replicas.

Meanwhile, a separate GMA News report on an interview with exorcist Fr. Ramon Unson Merino offered a religious perspective on the questions surrounding death and the unseen world.

Merino, parochial vicar of Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Makati, said spiritual struggles could take forms that people find difficult to explain.

Look to the saints

He cited illness, personal troubles and what he described as negative influences on the mind, while warning against occult practices and the abandonment of religious faith.

As Catholics observed All Saints’ Day, he urged the faithful to look to the saints as examples of people who, despite human weaknesses, lived according to God’s will. He also emphasized the importance of their intercession in spiritual struggles.

The contrast is striking: while AI developers explore ways to simulate the presence of the dead, Catholic teaching directs believers toward the spiritual life and the hope of eternal life.

The concern over AI’s influence also extends beyond individual grief.

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), during a meeting in Macau from 27 to 31 October, called on church leaders across the region to establish pastoral safeguards for the technology.

Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit Jr. of San Pablo, Laguna, chairman of the FABC Office of Social Communication, said AI offered opportunities for humanity but warned that efficiency alone could not determine whether its use was morally good.

The federation committed to promoting AI literacy and ethical use, while encouraging episcopal conferences to develop safeguards suited to their local contexts and consistent with Church teachings.

Maralit also warned of digital harms, including deepfakes that undermine truth and the misrepresentation of Asian cultures and religious traditions. He said the Church must ensure that AI serves communion rather than becoming an end in itself.

David, meanwhile, stressed that an AI avatar is not the person who died. “It is a machine generating responses from data,” he said.

For someone struggling to say goodbye, a machine that sounds like a loved one could make the difference between preserving a memory and refusing to let it go, he explained.