AI Video of Many Dead People in Korea, Makes You Feel Moved but Causes Worry

Illustration of an AI video showing the figure of a loved one who has died. This technology is beginning to be used by some South Koreans to remember family members. (Illustration photo/AI)

JAKARTA - South Koreans are starting to use AI to make videos of loved ones who have died. For some families, this technology is a way to miss. For experts, the risk is not small because it touches a very personal wound.

Kyodo News, quoted Thursday, July 2, reported that one of its users was Lee Geon Hui, a 28-year-old office worker. He hired the technology company Vaice in Seoul to make a short video featuring his late grandfather's digital figure.

The video was made as a gift for his father. His father misses his grandfather Lee who died in a car accident before Lee was born.

In the video, the virtual figure greeted Lee's father as "my most precious son". He also apologized for asking his son to help with farm work and had opposed his desire to become a hairdresser.

"My dad said he wouldn't watch the video. But he finally watched it, then cried. So I feel it paid off," Lee said.

Services like this are increasingly popular in South Korea. A number of start-up companies offer AI-based videos of deceased people. Television shows are also starting to feature AI versions of deceased singers and actors.

Vaice CEO Jeongu Won said his company serves about 300 customers per month. Most are in their 40s and 50s. They generally want to make videos of their deceased parents. There are also those who make videos of grandparents as gifts for their parents.

To create a video, Vaice requires several photos and short sound samples from the person who has died. A basic video lasting three to five minutes is priced at 600,000 won or about US$390.

According to Won, customers usually play the video when families gather for death anniversary rituals or Korean holidays. The script is usually written by the family itself. Many include the phrase "I love you". There are also those who slip in regrets for unfinished conflicts.

Still according to Kyodo News, a number of experts have warned that this technology is triggering concerns. Yong Man Ro, an AI expert at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, called it a double-edged sword because it touches human emotions.

"As AI technology becomes part of people's lives, the technology can also bring cultural experiences and shocks that we have never experienced," said Ro.

Choung Wan, professor emeritus of the Faculty of Law at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, assessed that urgent legal rules were made. According to him, the dignity and rights of the deceased must be protected. A person's AI version should also not be created if the person had ever rejected it while alive.

The issue could be more complicated if the service evolves into a griefbot or deathbot, an AI system that can have a two-way conversation with grieving families.

According to Choung, a healthy mourning process requires families to accept that their loved ones are gone. Conversations with AI that are made as if the person is still alive can interfere with this process and make families trapped in fantasies.

Won admitted to being cautious about launching such an AI chatbot. Direct conversations are difficult for companies to monitor and can pose unexpected ethical problems.

Ro himself once made a one-minute AI video of his parents' figures after they died last year. The video was played while he was gathering with his siblings. They were touched when the digital version of their parents said "don't worry" and "take care of yourself".

However, Ro didn't watch it anymore.

"One time is enough to respect our late parents who are very old. We continue to live," he said.