Written by Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska & Saide Mobayed Vega
In late November, the first of three cross-cultural research events took place in Poland as part of the project Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: An Intercultural Analysis. The project, funded by the Schmidt Sciences , is hosted by the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge and led by Dr. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska. Its main goal is to explore how digital immortality technologies are perceived, evaluated, and adopted in three distinct cultural settings: Poland, India and China. The team held its first iteration in Poznań co-organised by the cultural institution CK Zamek. The event kicked off with a screening of the documentary Eternal You, in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, followed by an all-day experts workshop and three focus groups.
Screening of “Eternal You”
The film explores the lives of individuals who, after their biological death, continue to exist as digital replicas carried in the pockets of their loved ones. The screening was followed by a lively discussion featuring the director Hans Block, Anja Franczka—founder of the Institute of the Good Death—and Dr. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska. The conversation revolved around three key themes regarding the ethics of the digital afterlife industry: trust, responsibility, and vulnerability.
Trust emerged as a central theme in the work of Hans Block and Anja Franczak, for whom working with people means meeting them during the most vulnerable moments of their lives—whether in front of the camera or the deeply intimate setting of grief support as a grief doula. The conversation then turned to the issue of trust within the emerging “digital afterlife industry”—a sector currently driven by profit and characterised by a lack of transparency and accountability. The speakers explored ways to rebuild and enhance trust in this industry, particularly in light of the vulnerabilities involved.
A compelling example from the film catalysed a more profound discussion: the story of a Korean mother who, after losing her daughter, found solace in the interaction with a recreated hologram of her child. This brought the theme of vulnerability to the forefront, emphasising the emotional complexities and ethical dilemmas tied to such technologies.
The third recurring theme was responsibility within the digital afterlife industry, including how it should be shared and between whom. The speakers agreed on the need for clear regulations to address digital afterlife technologies’ ethical and social implications. However, they also stressed the importance of education in helping individuals and families navigate these new possibilities.
Photo by Tomasz Siuda
Experts Workshop: Traditions and Futures of (Digital) Immortality
The screening aimed to introduce the project’s main topics and establish a common starting point for further research activities within the project’s framework, including an expert workshop and three focus groups.
The experts workshop addressed crucial challenges and dilemmas in this evolving field by integrating various perspectives and knowledge. Expertise in the frame of this project is defined as intersectoral, intercultural, and interdisciplinary. This definition reflects integrating knowledge from various sectors—healthcare, technology, law, and spirituality—while drawing from diverse cultural contexts and academic disciplines.
The expert workshop invited thirteen individuals working across seven categories:
-
- Academics, Researchers, Thinkers, Public Intellectuals, Artists: Prof. Anna Nacher, Prof. Waldemar Kuligowski and Dr. Karolina Żyniewicz
- Healthcare Professionals and Social Workers: Agata Malenda
- Technologists, Developers, Entrepreneurs, Innovators: Natalia Hatalska*, Maciej Mróz and Dr. Paweł Piasecki
- Legal Experts: Dr. Tomasz P. Antoszek
- Community Organizers, Civil Society Groups, NGOs: Anja Franczak
- Religious and Spiritual Leaders: Radosław Rakowski*
- Funeral Services: Izabela Jachnicka and Agnieszka Beczek*
*Radosław Rakowski, Natalia Hatalska and Agnieszka Beczek could not attend the workshop in person.
The workshop was structured into three modules: (1) Mapping the Socio-Cultural Context of (Im)mortality, 2) Speculative Design: Exploring Intercultural Approaches to Designing Deabots and 3) Mapping the Future of Digital (Im)mortality) and moderated by Dr Stephen Cave (philosopher), Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska (digital death and immortality scholar), and Dr Toamsz Hollanek (AI ethics and critical design scholar), respectively.
In the first module, Dr Stephen Cave prompted participants with questions surrounding mortality and their implications in a digital age. Dr Cave’s touched on how cultures construct myths and stories to cope with the awareness of death, such as religious beliefs in resurrection, reincarnation, or legacy-building through work and descendants.
The group discussions turned toward the concept of digital immortality, questioning its viability and classification. Some framed it as an extension of the physical body, mind, or soul, while others considered it through emotional or therapeutic lenses, such as grief management. Participants highlighted the parallels between traditional cultural legacies and modern technological interventions, like VR ceremonies and AI grief therapy, raising questions about authenticity, ethics, and the extent to which society is ready for such technological developments. Divergent views arose, with some emphasising the instability of digital archives and the corporatisation of social media platforms. In contrast, others explored the philosophical and theological dimensions of digitally preserving identity and memory.
In the second module, Dr Tomasz Hollanek teased participants towards speculative design methods and thus shifted the focus to the ethical, cultural, and technical challenges in designing AI-driven tools for grief support or digital immortalisation. Participants expressed scepticism about the commercialisation of such technologies, with concerns about exploitation in vulnerable stages of grief, lack of regulation, and ethical testing standards. However, part of the session’s activities was imagining creative ideas for potentially beneficial AI applications in the death tech sector. Participants creatively came up with the following ideas:
-
- Grief Buddy App: A matchmaking platform akin to Tinder, connecting users with shared grief experiences, fostering community, and offering mutual support.
- Soulmate and Heaven’s Voice: Tools enabling individuals to leave personalised messages or create posthumous avatars, allowing loved ones to maintain a connection after passing.
- Grief AI Experience Centre: A controlled environment offering sensory AI experiences, such as auditory and olfactory stimuli, to facilitate short-term emotional healing.
While some saw potential in integrating AI with grief therapies to support ongoing bonds with the deceased, others remained cautious about the societal and emotional repercussions, questioning whether externalising grief processes through AI might hinder the natural process of grieving.
The last module, led by Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, offered a joint reflection on the professionalisation of the digital afterlife leaders. While the digital afterlife industry is often described through three “action” terms—commercialisation, commodification, and privatisation — Dr Nowaczyk-Basińska underscores “professionalisation” is a missing component, understood further as a social innovation which has the potential to open up new paths for discussions on the forms of our postmortem digital presences.
Participants were invited to share their insights by completing a survey to encourage further dialogue. The survey was divided into five sections, including the scope of the role, how the role should be named, the stages of professionalisation, social innovation and cultural diversity, and the overall industry.
Some findings revealed that approximately 70% of participants believe managing postmortem data requires a new, specialised profession rather than being handled by existing professionals in other fields (e.g., executors, lawyers, trust fund managers, GDPR officers, etc.), and half of the participants agreed on the importance of formal qualifications for Digital Afterlife Leaders, such as a university degree in law, psychology, or technology.
Some main challenges outlined in formalising training or certifications for Digital Afterlife Leaders were the need for clear academic pathways or training institutions and the difficulty of standardising practices across different cultures/regions.
Photo by Tomasz Siuda
Focus Groups: (Im)mortality Over Dinner
The connection between the experts workshop and the focus group—as we see it— lies in the distinct layers of expertise. Given the deeply personal nature of death, grief, and immortality, in this project, we aim to honour professional insights, high-level knowledge, lived experiences, and intimate practices. The latter was explored through a series of “Dinners”. We hosted three “Dinners” in total, with 27 participants selected from over 70 submissions.
(Im)mortality Over Dinner is an experimental research method developed within this project that blends the traditional structure of focus groups with the creative expression of performance. This dynamic draws inspiration from Michael Hebb’s well-established concept “Death Over Dinner”, where people come together in a relaxed and inclusive setting to discuss the often-taboo topic of death.
Carefully designed to address key research questions—centred around themes such as caring for the dead, remembering, grief, and digital immortality—this format offers more than just data collection.
It fosters meaningful, unique, and multi-sensory engagement, where, as Anja Franczak, co-moderator of the “dinners,” nicely put it, “science meets art, focus groups meet ceremony, intellect meets sensual experience, and data meets ritual.”
At its core, it’s about creating a space for dialogue and synergy, inviting participants to reflect, share, and focus on lived experience and connect in ways that transcend conventional research methods.
Photo by Tomasz Siuda
The evening was hosted by Anja Franczak, Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, and Tomasz Siuda – photographer and artist. Participants were welcomed and invited to the table, and the conversation about death began (in quite a surprising way), with the question: “What makes you feel alive?”
In the next round of questions, participants were asked to introduce their deceased loved ones, for whom they had been asked in advance to bring a photograph. Name cards were placed in front of each participant, with one side displaying their name and the other reserved for the name of their deceased loved one. This created two symbolic circles at the table: one of the living and one of the departed.
Photo by Tomasz Siuda
The discussion then unfolded in layers, beginning with intimate and personal reflections on how participants care for their deceased loved ones and maintain bonds with them. To guide these conversations, participants were invited to take colourful ribbons from a central floral arrangement, each symbolising an individual practice or memory. The dialogue eventually shifted to the potential role of AI in these bond-building rituals.
Toasts punctuated the experience throughout the evening. With non-alcoholic wine, toasts were made at different moments—for life, for the dead, and for the meeting itself—creating a ritualistic rhythm to the dinner.
After each Dinner, participants were invited to take a small star from the table, symbolising a thought or reflection they wanted to carry forward. They were also encouraged to do one final activity: a short portrait session with Tomasz Siuda. During the session, participants heard this request from Tomasz: “Please close your eyes and imagine that you meet, under your closed eyelids, another gaze. Imagine that your deceased loved one is looking at you. Let your gazes meet there, intersect, and touch. When you’re ready, open your eyes for a moment and look into the lens.” The black-and-white portraits were later sent to participants as a post-dinner gift.
Photo by Tomasz Siuda
In the post-dinner survey, among many other questions, we asked participants: “Would you recommend participating in the “Dinner” to your family or friends?” Out of the 24 surveys received, all 24 responses were positive.
To conclude, the event sparked thought-provoking discussions on death, digital immortality, and the digital afterlife industry grounded in the Polish context. The screening of Eternal You brought together a diverse audience of over 100 people, blending research participants with the wider public to foster broader engagement. In the coming months, the collected data will be analysed, and the team is preparing for the next stages of the project, scheduled for February and April 2025, with the same activities to be implemented in India and China, respectively.