AI Resurrections and Their Place in India's Tech Landscape- Could India Lead the AI Afterlife Market? Digital Resurrection Meets Desi Sentiment.
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The Ethical Conflict:
When the world witnessed Zhang Yiyi, a Chinese father, share a video of his 'conversation with his departed son made possible by an AI-powered avatar,' people on the internet were left in awe and discomfort. The ability to "resurrect" the departed sounds like a concept straight out of science fiction; with AI, however, it has entered the mainstream tech conversations. The " Grief Tech " sector has piqued India's interest due to its potential benefits, especially given the country's profound connections to legacy and remembrance.Welcome to the world of AI resurrections , also known as 'Grief Tech,' a blend of generative AI, deepfake technology, and emotional design that replicates the face, voice, mannerisms, and appearance of the departed.Globally, startups like South Korea's DeepBrain AI and the U.S.-based HereAfter AI are already creating grief-tech services, such as interactive memorial avatars that simulate conversations with the deceased. These services blend audio cloning, facial synthesis, and memory curation. Closer to home, startups like Deepsync and Resemble AI (which has Indian engineering roots) are laying the technical foundation for voice cloning and emotion AI in India. While India doesn't yet have a fully dedicated grief tech startup, the building blocks are firmly in place.India offers a unique cultural context for the digital afterlife , like its strong ancestral reverence. Indian society places high emotional and ritualistic value on honoring the departed. Services that could potentially preserve their being or simulate the departed's voice or likeness could appeal to this sentiment.Apart from satisfying sentimental aspects, India has a massive digital archival potential. Thanks to smartphone penetration, the average urban Indian now leaves behind gigabytes of videos, photos, and voice messages, perfect for AI to digest and generate optimal results.Lastly, Indian start-ups, supported by a large AI talent pool and lower development costs, can build tools for this market a lot more cost-effectively than most of their global counterparts. (Economic Survey 2023-24, Nasscom-Deloitte AI talent report)Startups working in synthetic media, such as Deepsync (voice cloning for podcasting), and academic labs at IIIT-Hyderabad and IIT-Madras, have the technical backbone to power such services. Generative AI labs like Sarvam AI are also investing in emotion-sensitive models that could power ethical memory bots . These players might not brand themselves as "grief tech," but they're producing the very engines on which India's version of the digital afterlife could run.Topics related to death are difficult to talk about and are often associated with immense sensitivity, making the inevitability of controversy surrounding digital resurrection evident. The concept of digital resurrection continues to evoke mixed opinions, with concerns of privacy and ethics. Critics warn against psychological dependency, exploitation of grief, and issues of consent, especially when the departed never agreed on being 'digitally revived.' The emergence of this concept challenges conventional understandings of mourning and memory in an increasingly digital world. It has also raised awareness about the significance of digital wills among the public.Looking at it through a culture-centric lens, cultural attitudes may vary sharply across regions in India; while some embrace AI for spiritual continuity, others could see it as an interference with 'karmic cycles' or 'dharma. The legal framework in India remains underdeveloped regarding issues such as the data rights of the deceased, regulations surrounding deepfakes, and the management of digital legacies.As India continues to define its position in the global AI landscape, grief tech could become a niche where Indian startups innovate with both cultural and emotional intelligence; blending memory, technology, and emotion into a service economy tailored to the afterlife.
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