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Fast Company
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Why AI ‘reanimations' of the dead may not be ethical
Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident 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. As part of the ceremonies to mark Israel's 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didn't happen. In April, the BBC created a deepfake 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. Over the past few years, we've been studying the moral implications of AI at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and we find these AI reanimations to be morally problematic. Before we address the moral challenges the technology raises, it's important to distinguish AI reanimations, or deepfakes, from so-called griefbots. Griefbots are chatbots trained on large swaths of data the dead leave behind—social media posts, texts, emails, videos. These chatbots mimic how the departed used to communicate and are meant to make life easier for surviving relations. The deepfakes we are discussing here have other aims; they are meant to promote legal, political, and educational causes. Moral quandaries The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nation's current government? Would Pelkey, the road-rage victim, be comfortable with the script his family wrote for his avatar to recite? What would Christie think about her AI double teaching that class? The answers to these questions can only be deduced circumstantially, from examining the kinds of things the dead did and the views they expressed when alive. And one could ask if the answers even matter. If those in charge of the estates agree to the reanimations, isn't the question settled? After all, such trustees are the legal representatives of the departed. But putting aside the question of consent, a more fundamental question remains. What do these reanimations do to the legacy and reputation of the dead? Doesn't their reputation depend, to some extent, on the scarcity of appearance, on the fact that the dead can't show up anymore? Dying can have a salutary effect on the reputation of prominent people; it was good for John F. Kennedy, and it was good for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The fifth-century BC Athenian leader Pericles understood this well. In his famous Funeral Oration, delivered at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, he asserts that a noble death can elevate one's reputation and wash away their petty misdeeds. That is because the dead are beyond reach and their mystique grows postmortem. 'Even extreme virtue will scarcely win you a reputation equal to' that of the dead, he insists. Do AI reanimations devalue the currency of the dead by forcing them to keep popping up? Do they cheapen and destabilize their reputation by having them comment on events that happened long after their demise? In addition, these AI representations can be a powerful tool to influence audiences for political or legal purposes. Bringing back a popular dead singer to legitimize a political event and reanimating a dead victim to offer testimony are acts intended to sway an audience's judgment. It's one thing to channel a Churchill or a Roosevelt during a political speech by quoting them or even trying to sound like them. It's another thing to have 'them' speak alongside you. The potential of harnessing nostalgia is supercharged by this technology. Imagine, for example, what the Soviets, who literally worshipped Lenin's dead body, would have done with a deepfake of their old icon. Good intentions You could argue that because these reanimations are uniquely engaging, they can be used for virtuous purposes. Consider a reanimated Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to our currently polarized and divided nation, urging moderation and unity. Wouldn't that be grand? Or what about a reanimated Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, speaking at the trial of a Holocaust denier like David Irving? But do we know what MLK would have thought about our current political divisions? Do we know what Anielewicz would have thought about restrictions on pernicious speech? Does bravely campaigning for civil rights mean we should call upon the digital ghost of King to comment on the impact of populism? Does fearlessly fighting the Nazis mean we should dredge up the AI shadow of an old hero to comment on free speech in the digital age? Even if the political projects these AI avatars served were consistent with the deceased's views, the problem of manipulation—of using the psychological power of deepfakes to appeal to emotions—remains. But what about enlisting AI Agatha Christie to teach a writing class? Deepfakes may indeed have salutary uses in educational settings. The likeness of Christie could make students more enthusiastic about writing. Fake Aristotle could improve the chances that students engage with his austere Nicomachean Ethics. AI Einstein could help those who want to study physics get their heads around general relativity. But producing these fakes comes with a great deal of responsibility. After all, given how engaging they can be, it's possible that the interactions with these representations will be all that students pay attention to, rather than serving as a gateway to exploring the subject further. Living on in the living In a poem written in memory of W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden tells us that after the poet's death Yeats 'became his admirers.' His memory was 'scattered among a hundred cities,' and his work subject to endless interpretation: 'The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living.' The dead live on in the many ways we reinterpret their words and works. Auden did that to Yeats, and we're doing it to Auden right here. That's how people stay in touch with those who are gone. In the end, we believe that using technological prowess to concretely bring them back disrespects them and, perhaps more importantly, is an act of disrespect to ourselves—to our capacity to abstract, think, and imagine.
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"Judges Tied Themselves In Knots": Harish Salve On Cash Row Judge Case
New Delhi: Former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve has said that while judges have "tied themselves up in knots" over the case of Justice Yashwant Verma, from whose premises bundles of unaccounted cash has been recovered, the "elephant in the room" was how such a situation came to pass and now that it has, what happens to the criminal justice system in the country. Yet another concern, he said, was for the judges not to create an impression of bias. NDTV has accessed the report of a three-member panel of senior judges, which has recommended the removal of the former Delhi High Court judge, at whose residence "piles of burnt Rs 500 notes" was found in March. "If this had been the house of a minister where this incident had taken place, would it have been enough to say that the minister must now resign and go away? By now, the media would have been screaming, why is the minister not in jail?" Mr Salve told NDTV in an exclusive interview this evening. "If a public servant has been found with such large amounts of unaccounted cash, what happens to the criminal justice system of the country? That's one question which looms large," he added. For this, the system is to blame, he indicated, questioning why the law of the land is not taking its course which it would have done in any other case. "Why are we even discussing this on TV? Why is there a question of what will happen now? Would there be a doubt if it was any other citizen? And you know, this is the real problem of this case. We have tied ourselves in knots. The judges, I'm sorry to say, have tied themselves in knots," he said. Impeachment of a judge is a very complicated procedure - so much so that since Independence, not a single judge has been impeached, though five judges have resigned when questions were raised about them. Mr Salve said such a system was devised out of the good intention to protect the independence of judges. "But what about protecting the integrity of the system? It is now established that this whole collegium system, it doesn't act with alacrity," he said, describing it as "dysfunctional". Asked if there should be a criminal proceeding based on the report of the three-judge panel, Mr Salve said, "What is the delay in now allowing the CBI to register a case and investigate it like any other act of corruption? And that has to be the basis for the impeachment. And it is well settled that civil and criminal proceedings can run side by side". Quoting the oft-repeated maxim that "Howsoever high you may be, the law is above you," Mr Salve questioned, "What are we waiting for? I mean, unfortunately, impeachment is the only process we have".
The Hindu
a day ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Goa Medical College advisory board to have experts from AIIMS, WHO, says State Health Minister
The Goa Government will set up an advisory board of experts to monitor the functioning of the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Thursday (June 19, 2025). The board, which will be headed by the State Health Minister with representatives from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), World Health Organization (WHO), the Union Government, and specialists from across the country, is expected to enhance healthcare services at the hospital on par with international standards. The State's Additional Secretary (Health) will be the advisory board's Member Secretary. Board members will guide the team of doctors at the GMCH, Mr. Rane told The Hindu. 'The advisory board for the GMCH existed in the past when I was the Health Minister, but when the next Minister came in, he dismantled it. Back then also, we had medical experts from AIIMS, the WHO, and a couple of doctors from Mumbai. This advisory board is absolutely crucial, with independent experts onboard, along with the other government agencies. The board will also decide the standard operating procedures for specialised treatments in the hospital,' Mr. Rane said. The GMCH in Bambolim, north Goa, is the largest government-run hospital in the State, and one of the oldest medical colleges in India, with over 1,500 beds catering to patients from Goa, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. The medical college, established in 1842 as the Escola Medico Cirurgica de Goa, was originally formed to train doctors to serve the erstwhile Portuguese colony in Goa. Following Independence, the GMCH, which was renamed as such in 1963, became a part of the Indian healthcare system. Mr. Rane also said the State was in the process of bringing experts in emergency medicine to the hospital. 'Emergency medicine plays a vital role in providing timely and effective care to people experiencing sudden illnesses or injuries, including road traffic accidents. We are also trying to bring in experts from private hospitals such as the Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, as they are investing a lot in research, and their knowledge will benefit our doctors and patients here,' he said. The team of 12 or 13 doctors will be from Mumbai, Manipal, Delhi, Bhopal, and Arunachal Pradesh. 'We are still in the process of finalising and bringing everyone onboard. So far, we have Dr. R. P. Srivastava, past president, the Association of Surgeons of India; Dr. Ajai Singh from AIIMS Bhopal; and Dr. Sagar Galwankar, emergency medicine specialist associated with AIIMS. From Mumbai, we will have Dr. Ashok Johari, renowned orthopaedic surgeon; Padmashri Dr. Amit Maydeo, Chairman of the Institute of Gastrosciences, Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital; and Dr. Sunil Bandekar from the Breach Candy Hospital. Once we have the team, we will divide them into two groups and have a quarterly in-person meeting, and monthly virtual meeting,' Mr. Rane said, adding that the State Government wanted to increase the efficiency of the hospital and provide good care to patients, with the ultimate objective of helping the poor and needy. 'The advisory board will further strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of providing international standard healthcare in all the states and making healthcare affordable and accessible for all,' Mr. Rane said.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Challenging Coca-Cola & PepsiCo: Reliance to invest up to Rs 8,000 crore in Campa, beverages expansion over next 15 months
Challenging Coca-Cola & PepsiCo: Reliance to invest up to Rs 8,000 crore in Campa, beverages expansion over next 15 months Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the FMCG arm of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail, is set to invest between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore over the next 12–15 months to scale up its beverage portfolio, including the iconic Campa brand. The move marks RCPL's most significant capital outlay since its launch in 2022. According to a ET report, the investment will support the addition of 10–12 new greenfield and co-packing plants across India, a move aimed at challenging established players like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, as well as low-cost regional competitors. "The capex is being done on a combined investment of Rs 6,000–8,000 crore by Reliance and some of its partners," a senior executive told the publication. RCPL's beverage portfolio includes Campa Cola, Orange and Lemon, Sosyo, Sun Crush juices, the Spinner sports drink co-created with former Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan, and the fruit-based hydration brand RasKik. The company is also setting up a facility in Bihar, in addition to the plant in Guwahati built in partnership with Jericho Foods and Beverages to serve the Northeast. Spinner is priced aggressively at Rs 10 for a 250ml bottle, less than half the cost of rival drinks like Gatorade and Sting, demonstrating RCPL's strategy to undercut the market. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 유일한 공식 무료 SOC 게임! 설치도 없습니다! 경복의 바다 다운로드 Undo 'RCPL is focusing on 600 million mass consumers and is working closely with neighbourhood stores by giving them margins at today's cost,' RCPL Director T Krishnakumar had earlier told ET in an exclusive interview. So far, RCPL beverages are produced in 18 co-invested plants. While the company's distribution remains selective, Reliance plans to make its consumer products available nationally by March 2027, with about 70% coverage by March 2026 for key categories like beverages, Krishnakumar said. The broader consumer portfolio includes Sil jams and spreads, Lotus Chocolate, Toffeeman and Ravalgaon confectionery, Alan's Bugles snacks, Velvette personal care products, and the Independence staples range. Notably, most of the company's 15 brands have been acquired since its entry into FMCG in 2022. As per news agency PTI, RCPL's revenue in FY25 touched Rs 11,500 crore, making it the fastest-growing vertical within Reliance Retail. Campa and Independence brands each surpassed Rs 1,000 crore in sales, contributing to RCPL's 3.5X year-on-year growth. Reliance Retail CFO Dinesh Taluja said during an earnings call that Campa has already achieved a double-digit market share in its available regions. The company now reaches over one million retail outlets via a network of 3,200+ distributors, and has begun exploring export opportunities in select international markets. Despite a weather-affected summer, India's beverage market, estimated at Rs 67,000 crore, is projected to more than double to Rs 1.47 lakh crore by 2030, according to think tank ICRIER. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Scroll.in
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Censor board asks for PM Modi's quote to be added to Aamir Khan film ‘Sitaare Zameen Par': Reports
The Central Board of Film Certification has asked for a quote by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be included in the beginning of Aamir Khan's upcoming film Sitaare Zameen Par, reports said on Wednesday. The film was cleared for a theatrical release on Friday after several changes, including the removal of a visual and a subtitle containing the word kamal, or lotus in Hindi, Bollywood Hungama reported. The quote by Modi appears in the opening disclaimer and makes a reference to the year 2047, the Hindustan Times reported. While it was not immediately clear what the quote was about, the year 2047 marks the 100th anniversary of Independence and features prominently in the Union government's Viksit Bharat campaign. Sitaare Zameen Par is an official remake of the 2018 Spanish drama Champions. Directed by RS Prasanna, the Hindi-language comedy stars Aamir Khan as Gulshan, a troubled coach who is ordered by a judge to train basketball players with learning disabilities. Khan has also produced the film, which was given a UA 13+ certificate by the censor board. The certification makes it suitable for all audiences, but parental guidance is advised for children below the age of 13. Play
