Digital Afterlife: Hologram Lets Deceased Woman Interact With Mourners at UK Funeral

Compiled by the editorial desk with reference to public reports from The Telegraph and Axios, and company information from StoryFile.

At a funeral in the United Kingdom, attendees were met with an unexpected speaker: the woman being memorialized, who had passed away in June at age 87. Through a holographic display powered by artificial intelligence, she addressed mourners and even answered their questions in real time, a feat made possible by a startup called StoryFile.

StoryFile was co-founded by her son, Stephen Smith, who is based in Los Angeles. The company initially aimed to record and preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, but its technology has since been adapted for broader use, including memorial services.

Before her death, the woman was filmed using 20 cameras responding to roughly 250 questions. That footage was fed into a software system that reconstructed her digitally, allowing her to appear as a hologram at the service. According to a report in The Telegraph, Smith interacted with the virtual representation of his mother and also gave attendees the chance to pose their own questions.

“Mum answered questions from grieving relatives after they had watched her cremation,” Smith told The Telegraph. He noted that she responded with “new details and honesty,” adding, “People feel emboldened when recording their data. Mourners might get a freer, truer version of their lost loved one.”

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StoryFile has used similar methods for other public figures. Earlier this year, a hologram of Ed Asner, the former president of the Screen Actors Guild, fielded questions at his own funeral. His son, Matt Asner, described the experience to Axios as surprising and slightly unsettling. “Nothing could prepare me for what I was going to witness when I saw it,” he said. Other attendees, he added, were “a little creeped out by it” because it felt “like having him in the room.”

The use of AI to simulate the dead is not limited to StoryFile. Amazon has demonstrated a feature for its Alexa smart speaker that can mimic the voice of a deceased relative, such as a grandmother reading a bedtime story. These developments raise questions about the purpose of such technology and what it offers beyond traditional recordings.

Why This Matters

While the technology is still new, it touches on deep human emotions. For some, it may offer a form of closure or a way to remember loved ones more vividly. For others, it may feel unsettling or even macabre. The choice to use such tools remains personal, and the debate over their place in mourning is likely to continue as the technology evolves.