It didn’t sit well with some netizens when music producers used Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology earlier this year to replicate late Malaysian singer Queenzy Cheng’s voice for a Chinese New Year song.
Now Chinese content creators are using the same tech to create clips of departed celebs.
With the use of AI, voices and imagery of celebs such as Hong Kong singer Coco Lee and Taiwanese actor Godfrey Gao are recreated for social media.
Wait… Isn’t this no different from deepfake videos out there?
Coco died from suicide last July, while Godfrey passed away in 2019 from cardiac arrest while filming a Chinese variety show.
In one of the videos, ‘Coco’ is seen addressing her fans with an all-too-familiar voice.
“From the moment I left this world, I can always feel your endless love and support,” she says.
Is anyone feeling the heebie-jeebies yet?
Later in the video, the AI-generated Coco relays words of encouragement to her fans.
“I know life can be challenging at times and there will be many difficulties and tribulations,” she adds.
At the end of the video, ‘Coco’ says, “In your hearts, I will always be with you.”
After the video made its rounds on Weibo, netizens took to the comments sharing how squeamish it made them feel.
“It is not a good thing to use the deceased as a gimmick like this,” wrote a user.
Another called the video “spiritual kidnapping”.
One questioned if the families of Coco and Godfrey gave their consent before posting the videos.
The content creator behind the videos got wind of the backlash and responded to the comments, calling it “just an expression of love”.
“I did it for free and I mentioned that it is AI-generated,” added the content creator defensively.