Against AI Shamanism: A Confucian Critique of Ghostbots

Abstract This commentary critically examines the ethical implications of ghostbots from a Confucian perspective. Ghostbots are AI-powered digital replicas of deceased individuals; they simulate the appearance, voice, and personality of the deceased through machine learning and affective computing. The unregulated usage of these technologies of digital immortality risks eroding traditional moral and ritual boundaries between the living and the dead. Drawing on Confucian ritual philosophy, I demonstrate how ghostbots disrupt the natural grieving process by collapsing the spatiotemporal distance essential to traditional mourning practices. I also explore the possibility that a restricted, therapeutic deployment of ghostbots could be carefully limited to align with Confucian values such as filial piety.