September 24, 2025
DHAKA – Grieving takes many forms, and recently, artificial intelligence is allowing us to cope with sorrow and remember loved ones who are no longer with us. With input of just one or two photographs, generative AIs such as Gemini and Midjourney now allow users to create their own version of AI-generated pictures and videos, which they are using to create the avatars of their late loved ones.
A bride shared a picture on social media, dressed in her wedding lehenga, standing beside her late father, who was no longer alive to share the moment and give his blessing to her. Many are doing the same because they never had even one good picture with their loved one during their lifetime. And for others, it is plain nostalgia.
In a way, people are resurrecting those who have passed away, making their faces smile, appear in places they have never been to when they were alive. And that does not stop here. A whole new industry is booming under this umbrella of grief management using AI. Grief Tech is an AI that allows users to create chatbots that can mimic their deceased loved ones. Many turn to this platform, especially if their loved one has passed away suddenly, leaving them almost no chance of getting closure or saying a final goodbye.
Indeed, grief can be a strenuous process, taking a toll on many of us. In fact, acceptance happens to be the most important among the five stages of grief, meaning one must go through the entire process to reach the final stage, “acceptance.” The length of time a bereaved person takes to cope with grief and trauma may vary, but psychologists point out that AI deepfakes can make us hallucinate between the past and present.
Psychologists have coined the term cognitive dissonance. It is the phenomenon you experience when you are exposed to two conflicting or opposing ideas. You know that your loved ones have passed away, but putting up their pictures — even AI-generated ones — at a graduation ceremony or wedding functions can create great discomfort in your mind, affecting your overall well-being.
This AI technology may offer you temporary consolation, but it prolongs the grieving process, making it harder for you to come to terms with loss. Overwhelmed with such heavy emotions, we forget to address another pertinent aspect and arguably even more important: consent. Would they have wanted their pictures to be used this way? That simply draws an ethical boundary.
Last but not least, it scares me to think an AI, an entity still in its infancy and vulnerable to data breaches and commercial exploitation, would have our loved ones’ pictures and knowledge of our most personal sentiments.
Call it hyperbole, but it is like handing over your remote control to some entity that is not even human, and it will know exactly which one of your buttons to push!
Think of it this way: our loved ones live in our hearts, giving us their blessings and best wishes. The most powerful things in the universe – even blessings and best wishes included — are mostly intangible, deeply felt, yet not seen through our naked eyes.