“In cases of re-presenting deceased loved ones, we encounter cases where previous notions of identity, vitality and presence are being reshaped along technological lines,” he said.
“If someone who has lost their human form, body, and soul can be ‘resurrected’ from an archive of digital traces of their life, then who or what are we actually engaging with?” he said.
Robinson argued that the current mode of technology has echoes of centuries ago, “when the universe was filled with beings: divine beings, angelic beings, demonic beings, magical beings.”
The problem at hand, he said, is that the “new magic” of modern technology is “separated from the hierarchical and orderly universe of creation and the spiritual realm.”
Donna McLeod has been involved in grief ministry for decades. She first became involved with Catholic grief counseling after losing her youngest daughter in 1988. The funeral service evolved into Seasons of Hope, a grief support program for Catholics that “focuses on the spiritual aspects of grieving the death of a loved one.”
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Mr MacLeod said the program was one of “hospitality and spirituality” that emerges in an intensive community of people suffering from grief.
“It builds the community of the parish,” she said. “People realize they’re not alone. That’s a big problem for people who are grieving. Many people feel very alone with their loss.”
“And society expects everyone to move forward,” she continued. “But grief has its own schedule. Those who are grieving begin to understand that the Lord is with them and that He truly cares for them. There is hope and healing at the end of grief.”
“It’s about doing what Christ asks us to do, which is to walk with each other in difficult times,” she said.
Regarding AI avatar technology, MacLeod acknowledged that it is a “very high priority” for those who have lost a loved one to “seek a connection” with the deceased.
“People will say, ‘I’m not going to take my loved one’s voice off my answering machine,'” she says. “Or some bring up videos of family gatherings so they can see their loved ones again.”
“Everyone wants to stay connected to their loved ones,” she said. “It has to do with our Catholic faith and the communion of saints. People feel this spiritual connection with their loved ones.”
Mr MacLeod described himself as “on the fence” about how AI avatar apps could affect people. He acknowledged that there could be “emotional and psychological risks to interacting with an AI version of a loved one,” but said that unless there are underlying mental health issues, many users “may see it, but they won’t get hooked on it.”
But “the problem arises is that some people get stuck in the denial stage,” she says. McLeod pointed out that grieving people can become desperate in such situations and sometimes turn to mediums, psychics and other resources, which the church explicitly forbids.
It is unclear whether AI avatars fall into that prohibited category. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly prohibits the act of “invoking the dead.” The use of mediums and clairvoyants “all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and ultimately other human beings,” the Church says.
Baggot said apps like 2wai “collect data about the deceased without storing them.”
He also argued that AI avatars “could also disrupt the grieving process by sending ambiguous signals about the deceased’s survival.”
Meanwhile, Robinson acknowledged that “it’s good to want to connect with our departed loved ones,” noting that we do that “liturgically through prayers and memorials that honor souls that are dear to us.”
But he warned against “technocratic creators of complex computational machines that are becoming indistinguishable from magic.”
Such technology, he said, alters the “spiritual order” in ways that “religion and the ritual forms that underpin the belief that our eternal destiny lies in a God in heaven rather than in a database become disorganized and disembodied.”
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Service. He previously worked at College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
