The recordings show how Acosta talks about Lebron James and Star Wars, and Oliver's synthetic voice answers, asking the journalist courtesy return questions. Commentators described the whole as a “gruesome spectacle”, Arguing that talking to an algorithmic copy of the victim of the massacre distorts her memory and sending a real drama of armed violence.
The creator of Avatar is the boy's father, Manuel Oliver, who has already used artificial intelligence for the “Change the Ref” campaign. In the video posted after the publication of the interview, he emphasized that the technology was to “give Joaquín a voice in matters that would be close to him”, and the problem lies not in AI, but in easy access to weapons. Acosta referred to this statement as proof that he acted with the consent of the family.
Experts in digital forgery, such as prof. Hany Farid from UC Berkeley, however, warns that The algorithm cannot recreate what the deceased would like to say “and instead of talking to bots there are “dozens of live victims with whom a serious interview can be conducted.”
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Digital resurrections are gaining popularity
The history of Acosta is part of a wider wave of digital resurrections. In May, the Arizonian court watched a film in which the avatar of the victim of the road incident, Chris Pelkey, was generated to ask the killer during end speech. The judge described the recording as authentic and granted a maximum judgment.
The entertainment space also flirts with this phenomenon. At the concert of Rod Stewart, a clip was shown in which Ozzy Osbourne – already “in heaven” – makes a selfie with Princ and Tupak. There were shouts of delight in the audience, but also indignation, and lawyers began the debate about the rights to the image after death.
There is no shortage of examples where such practices rub against the sensation of the tabloid. In 2024, Michael Schumacher's family won compensation from the German magazine, which was published by the “first interview” with the F1 legend – In fact, it was a conversation with a bot generating the driver's alleged statements.
The “Roadrunner” document also warmed up the discussion, in which the director used the synthetic voice of Anthony Bourdain to read fragments of his farewell letter. Earlier he did not inform the viewers about manipulation, but critics They called the whole procedure “emotional blackmail”.
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Artificial intelligence creates artificial characters
Digital necromancy technology is not new. Already in 2020, the South Korean program “Meeting You” allowed the mother to “meet” in a virtual reality of a seven -year -old daughter who died of leukemia. The scene moved millions, but caused questions about the exploitation of mourning on television.
Market researchers indicate that the number of start-ups that offer avatars of the dead as so-called memory service. The document “Eternal You” showed both a sense of relief that gives the opportunity to talk again, as well as the threat of a situation in which algorithms are monetized by someone's sadness.
The most frequently raised risks relate to the distortion of life history, the use of image without consent and “hacking” mourning – from political manipulation to advertising addressed to people in sadness.
British and American ethics warn that such bots can hinder the process of mourning, lead to addiction to the illusion and be an instrument of disinformation. Psychologists, in turn, notice that some people declare relief after interaction with such a avatar. In the latest study, 93 percent Therapists decided that for an orphaned child, contact with a digital parent can help, although only half found this practice ethically acceptable.
Looking to the future, it can be expected that the “digital died” will become ubiquitous, from internal family chatbots, through personalized culinary guides with grandmother's voice, after holograms speaking on funerals. Over time, recipients can become resistant to the original shock, just as they got used to the realistic effects of CGI in action movies. It will remain developing legal and cultural norms: clear rules of consent in life, visible warning labels and a “switch”, which will allow the family to definitively close a digital narrative when he deems it necessary.
If this framework arises, conversations with algorithmic spirits can become another memory medium. Although always burdened with the risk that technology will say something about the dead that they never intended to say.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, Business Insider Polska journalist
