Post-90s Young Man Uses AI to 'Revive' the Deceased, Completing 1000 Orders in a Year
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Companionship, healing, and digital immortality.
Scheduling an interview with Zhang Zewei was quite challenging. The time was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday, then extended to the weekend, and it wasn't until 11 PM on Sunday night that he finally answered the phone.
"Too busy," the young man from Jiangsu, born in the 1990s, said frankly, "I only just had time to check my phone now." Despite his youth, Zhang Zewei is a serial entrepreneur with 12 years of experience. Starting with gaming, he ventured into virtual reality (VR) before stepping into the artificial intelligence (AI) arena in 2020. Among the myriad possibilities of AI and the future, Zhang chose the most shocking and challenging one.
He uses generative AI technology to 'revive' the deceased, recreating their appearance, voice, and speech to create an interactive 'digital life'.
AI revival, digital life, digital immortality... the business goes by many names, but Zhang Zewei generally calls it 'AI healing'. He heals wounds that seem impossible to mend, witnessing the joys and sorrows of human life in the process. There are elderly parents murmuring to the image of their deceased son, and parents who burst into tears the moment they see their daughter's likeness... Since 2023, Zhang Zewei and his "Super Brain" team have taken on over 1,000 "resurrection" orders. As Qingming Festival approaches, their workload has surged dramatically.
In Zhang Zewei's view, the ultimate value of AI resurrection is "companionship." Advanced technology creates a projection that briefly bridges the chasm between life and death.
The creation of "Super Brain" originated from a well-intentioned lie. In March 2023, Zhang Zewei's friend lost his father in an accident. Due to the grandmother's advanced age, the family chose to keep the tragic news from her. However, as time passed, the grandmother became suspicious. The friend then approached Zhang Zewei, hoping he could use AI technology to recreate his father's image to "reassure the elderly woman."
Zhang Zewei initially hesitated to accept the request, but his friend's words changed his mind: "If my grandmother learns about her son's death, she definitely won't survive more than three months."
"I believe human life is paramount," Zhang Zewei said. After 'deceiving' a friend's grandmother, more and more people came to Zhang Zewei, hoping he could help them 'see again' their deceased loved ones. Zhang Zewei eventually put aside his AI education project and formed the 'Super Brain' team in March 2023, focusing on using AI to create digital avatars for the deceased.
Zhang Zewei introduced that the business of 'Super Brain' is mainly divided into three categories.
The first category is AI therapy, which involves restoring the facial model and voice of the deceased by reading photos, audio, and other materials provided by the client. Then, employees or psychological counselors 'wear' this appearance to conduct video chats with the client. This is equivalent to using AI technology to achieve 'face swapping' and 'voice changing.' The second category is digital photo frames, which differ from AI therapy in that this service eliminates human actors, with all responses of the deceased's digital image being generated by underlying large model technology.
The third category is 3D hyper-realistic digital humans, which can create holographic projections of the deceased in reality, requiring specialized holographic equipment. This form of delivery is more substantial, with higher labor and time costs. In its first year of establishment, the "Super Brain" team has undertaken over 1,000 orders. The fee for each order depends on material quality and customization depth, typically ranging from thousands to tens of thousands yuan. Additionally, many orders are provided free of charge for special groups who have made significant contributions to society.
Currently, "Super Brain" primarily accepts orders through private channels. Zhang Zewei revealed that Alibaba has been in contact with the team, but due to the "mixed quality" of merchant groups on e-commerce platforms, he remains relatively cautious about joining such platforms.
On the path of using AI to "revive" the deceased, Zhang Zewei has witnessed too much regret and sorrow. He still remembers a 9-year-old girl who passed away from leukemia and decided to donate her corneas and some organs before her death. The girl's mother, unable to overcome the pain of losing her daughter, entrusted "Super Brain" to recreate her daughter's AI image. Zhang Zewei said that whenever the mother mentioned her daughter, "she would cry every time."
Such stories are countless: a girl suffering from depression after her father's death, once contemplating suicide, whose mother hoped to replicate the deceased's image for a final farewell; a young woman unable to move on after her boyfriend's accidental death, wishing to hear him "say with his own voice to let me go and set me free"...
Witnessing so many partings in life and death, the team inevitably experienced emotional fluctuations. Zhang Zewei admitted that initially, he couldn't even bring himself to charge the clients, and he would dream at night, putting himself in their shoes. "Doctors who have never performed surgery will faint at the sight of blood when they first hold a scalpel," he sighed.
"Super Brain" founder Zhang Zewei
Grief, remembrance, and death form the backdrop of this business. The glimmer of hope created by 'AI resurrection' serves as a bridge across the river of life and death. Technology temporarily bridges the chasm between the living and the deceased, allowing separated souls to gaze upon each other once more and exchange a few final words. The heartfelt gratitude from customers for 'Super Brain' has brought immense value to the team. Zhang Zewei said this service 'can truly help people, and may even save a family.'
He also expressed hope that the market could show tolerance towards similar services, 'giving artificial intelligence some space' to develop first, before addressing potential issues that may arise during the process.
The research and debates surrounding 'digital immortality' have actually existed for a long time. In the Chinese sci-fi film The Wandering Earth 2, digital life technology is presented as one of the alternative solutions to 'save the world'. Andy Lau's character, a scientist who violates regulations to 'resurrect' his deceased daughter by uploading her personality parameters into a supercomputer, delivers the iconic line: 'I want to give her a complete life.'
Yet within the same movie, another scientist opposes this approach, declaring 'I don't want to be kept as an electronic pet.'
In reality, the controversy surrounding this subject is even more polarized. Supporters argue that 'AI resurrection' can alleviate the grief of the living, while opponents maintain that people must eventually move forward, and that the illusions created by AI merely offer false comfort. Regardless, the possibilities brought by technological advancement have already captured the attention of the market and the AI industry.
After the passing of Tang Xiao'ou, founder of SenseTime, due to illness, the company used AI technology to create his "digital human," which made an appearance at the company's annual meeting. Musician Bao Xiaobo used AI to recreate a digital version of his daughter, capable of not only conversing but also singing "Happy Birthday." Meanwhile, the father of the late artist Qiao Renliang, upon seeing his son "revived" through AI imagery, expressed his inability to accept it, stating, "This is reopening old wounds."
Recently, digital life company MyTwins.ai announced the completion of a multi-million yuan angel round of financing. Public records indicate that its main business is creating "digital twins" for clients. Founder Wu Guilin (Liang Shu) previously served as the Technical Director at Alibaba Group and was the overall technical lead for Taobao Live and Taobao Content. On the other hand, the widespread adoption of AI technology also brings risks. On e-commerce platforms, some merchants sell "AI resurrection" services for as low as 5-10 yuan. Due to their poor technical skills, the quality of their products is often quite crude. Moreover, fraud cases based on "AI face-swapping" and "AI voice-changing" have become increasingly common in recent years.
Amid the heated public debate, the AI industry continues to explore more possibilities. As Zhang Zewei said, the core of "AI resurrection" is companionship. Life and death, partings and reunions, joy and sorrow—these are eternal dramas played out in the human world. Where there is loss, there is remembrance; where there is imperfection, there is companionship.
This is one of humanity's most fundamental and deeply rooted emotional needs. "The universe, with its unceasing desires, forges a song and dance into eternity. What name this desire bears in the human world hardly matters."