AI ETHICS | DEATH & GRIEF | DIGITAL AFTERLIFE
Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska
Assistant Research Professor at the University of Cambridge
Exploring how AI is reshaping our relationships with death, grief, memory and immortality.
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
University of Cambridge
Schmidt Sciences
What happens when AI changes not only how we live, but also how we die, mourn and remember?
For over a decade, I have been conducting research at the intersection of AI and death, tracing the transformation of digital afterlife technologies from niche experiments into a rapidly expanding and increasingly commercialised global industry.
My work has contributed to the development of (im)mortality studies — an interdisciplinary field exploring how 21st-century technologies are reshaping our understanding of mortality. I have co-developed recommendations for the digital afterlife industry, contributing to international debates on the ethical design and responsible development of technologies that mediate relationships with the dead and the bereaved. I have developed the conceptual framework for a new professional role — the Digital Afterlife Leader, supporting people in navigating the emotional, ethical, legal, and practical challenges associated with digital afterlife technologies. I also co-created (Im)mortality Over Dinner — an original qualitative research method combining focus groups, ritual, and ceremony to explore how AI is changing our understanding of death and grief.
Beyond academia, I regularly collaborate with companies, NGOs, artists, and cultural institutions.
Across all of this work, I keep returning to one question: as technology reshapes our understanding of death and grief, how can we ensure that care, empathy, and human connection remain central?