Directors: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck

Destined to be referred to as ‘like a real life Black Mirror’ this disturbing documentary examines the practice of digital afterlife companies who create avatars and simulations of dead people for their grieving friends and relatives to talk to. Users include Josh, a young man who chats every day to a digital clone of his late fiancée, and Christi, a woman who has a distressing experience when taking with a late friend who claims he is in hell. In the documentary’s most dystopian segment Korean woman Jang Ji-Sung, appearing on the TV show ‘Meeting You’, is reunited with her dead daughter, modelled on their still alive twin, in a virtual reality landscape. The heads of the AI companies who are interviewed appear worryingly, blithely dismissive of any ethical considerations of touting this technology to the vulnerable. But as one AI commentator points out, companies disowning the consequences of this technology is akin to dumping a driverless car out on the road indifferent to the inevitable carnage. Presented in a broadly dispassionate manner, this is nonetheless a troubling snapshot of a climate where innovation is outracing any moral considerations with the woozy, detached feel augmented via aerial drone shots and an ambient score.

David Willoughby

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