The Talking Dead: Voice-Cloning Yourself to AI Afterlife Services.

This article explores AI-driven afterlife services that enable individuals to create voice avatars, allowing interaction with the deceased. Analysing HereAfter, Eternos, and You, Only Virtual, the study explores whether these tools offer users control over their digital afterlife or distort self-representation and assesses their complex effects on grieving processes. The paper highlights ethical and social concerns surrounding voice-based digital immortality. Drawing on media, memory, and death studies, it argues that AI voice deadbots operate as a medium (McLuhan 1964), shaping digital memory and intensifying experiences of connective presence. Through digital ethnography, it examines platform functionalities, user experiences, and media portrayals, showing how AI voice-cloning services construct synthetic self-representation. Grounded in theories of authenticity, self-presentation, and memory (Goffman 1959; van Dijck 2007; Taylor 2022), the study reveals how these hyper-curated avatars foster emotional resonance and perceived trustworthiness, complicating efforts toward AI regulation. This article contributes to ethical debates on AI tools, addressing privacy concerns, commercialisation, and psychological harm in digital death.