Digital Afterlife: Hollywood & AI Tech

Meta patents AI to let you post from beyond the grave, Study Flags AI Chatbot Risks for 54,000 Mental Health Patients, Spotify and Liquid Death release $495 Eternal Playlist Urn. The fate of social media profiles after death has long divided opinion: preserve them untouched, grant families access for memorials, or find another path. Meta once pursued the latter with a 2023 patent for an AI system...

Entertainment Media Market to hit USD 6,165.06 Billion by 2035, AI video generator market set to surge from $5.4bn to $83bn by 2035, Oscar winners are more likely to drive theater viewership. Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency,  Ginger Media & Entertainment ,  j ournalist and  researcher  on technology and entertainment, an MFA photographer and filmmaker, and host of the podcast ...

Artificial intelligence is now reshaping every stage of film and TV production, from script development and planning to editing and viewer analytics. Streaming platforms are racing to feed global audiences, and AI tools that speed up workflows and reduce costs are becoming essential in the cutthroat competition. Actors face little direct threat. Synthetic performers and digital doubles are still e...

OpenAI Pulls Plug on Sora and Drops $1bn Disney Deal, Broadcasters Urge EU to Smart TV Platforms, AI Personalization and Streaming Market Surge Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency,  Ginger Media & Entertainment ,  j ournalist and  researcher  on technology and entertainment, an MFA photographer and filmmaker, and host of the podcast  Digital Afterlife: Hollywood & AI Tech

At Cannes Marché du Film 2026, AI Takes Center Stage During Marché du Film, I spoke with and listened to a film industry immersed in AI technology At Marché du Film , AI felt like a business model taking shape in public rather than a distant abstraction. The language had shifted, with AI now framed as production support that helps with brainstorming, editing, analysis, VFX, and workflow, while the...

New framework for content ROI in streaming era. Film market growth accelerates for Disney, Lionsgate, and Columbia Pictures. Europe’s €141 billion audiovisual sector expands, but streaming pay and authors’ rights lag. BTS and Stranger Things top 2025’s most loved entertainment. Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency,  Ginger Media & Entertainment ,  j ournalist and  researcher  on te...

Digital Afterlife News: Dead Celebrities, Dead Relatives, AI industry set for significant growth. Google’s Sweetwater explores how AI turns grief into a new kind of memory. Character.ai blocks teenagers from chatting with its AI bots amid safety concerns. Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood PR agency,  Ginger Media & Entertainment ,  j ournalist and  researcher  on technology and entertainm...

HumanX took over San Francisco this week, drawing more than 6,500 attendees, with an impressive 60% at VP level or above, alongside 400+ sponsors, 300+ speakers, and a packed media presence of 350 journalists. Held across several days in April 2026, the event brought together some of the biggest names shaping AI right now. Speakers and participants included leaders and voices from companies such a...

AI revolution in film and TV production and industry future report AI is boosting productivity by 5–10% in development and pre‑production (visual pitches, script breakdowns, A/B story testing, and shot lists), with potential expansion into physical production (virtual sets, fewer reshoots) and post‑production (VFX, clipping, dubbing, faster workflows). Up to 20% of U.S. original content spend — ab...

AI set to reshape film and TV production from script to screen. Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionise every phase of television and film production, potentially transforming not just how stories are told, but who gets to tell them. As demand for video content surges, US adults now spend almost seven hours daily watching across platforms, stagnant budgets, lengthy production schedules,...

ByteDance promises safeguards for Seedance AI tool, AMC Theatres pulls AI short film ‘Thanksgiving Day’ after online backlash, Streaming viewers want AI assistance but not AI-generated content. At a screening of ElevenLabs’ Chroma Awards-winning AI short films, entries struggled under cinema lights, exposing immature technology and artificial narratives despite bold creative efforts. The limitatio...

The death tech industry uses AI and digital tools to create interactive afterlives for the departed. Lifelike AI avatars trained on personal data join "deadbots" that respond via text and voice, with companies building posthumous communication platforms, grief therapy chatbots, and virtual memorial services now valued at over $5B globally. The tech powering digital immortality includes n...

AI set to reshape film and TV production from script to screen Disney+ eyes user-generated AI videos despite IP lawsuits Kevin Reilly to helm AI startup Kartel as entertainment and tech worlds converge New Dutch AI time‑travel series from Tilly Norwood creators Beta Film launches AI startup Chapter41 with industry veterans Amazon Prime Video introduces AI-powered video recaps for original series E...

Startups working in the death tech or grief tech industry have designed different approaches that enable users to communicate with the dead, via text, video, audio, or photorealist avatars. The technology represents a recent shift from photography to artificial intelligence as a tool for remembering the deceased. Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood’s  Ginger Media & Entertainment , a  write...

The rise of posthumous AI avatars represents a major shift in how technology interacts with death. What began as memorial tools allowing loved ones to interact with digital recreations of the deceased has evolved into an expanding commercial industry. The digital afterlife market is expected to quadruple in the next decade, reaching $80 billion, driven by advances in avatar technology. Ginger Liu...

OpenAI Targets Hollywood with AI Films as New Investment Warner Bros. sues AI company Midjourney for copyright infringement The global AI avatar market Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5 billion in copyright settlement The global AI avatar market was valued at $7.41 billion in 2024. It is expected to grow from $9.78 billion in 2025 to $118.55 billion by 2034. OpenAI is making its Hollywood debut by back...

North America dominates AI film market with $500m in revenue and a 40% global share. Moonvalley Unveils Marey AI Video Tool for Filmmakers. AI to restore 100 classic kung fu films and debut first fully AI-made animated feature. Denmark to introduce new copyright law targeting deepfakesBBC threatens legal action against Perplexity for unauthorized content useEquity warns legal action over actors sc...

Google Study Examines Risks of Using AI to Replicate the Deceased The Digital Afterlife Startup Craze and The Digital Afterlife of Hollywood A growing wave of startups has promised to keep conversations alive with loved ones long after they are gone by creating custom AI agents that do more than replay old memories, but generate entirely new conversations. Startups building AI digital replicas are...

Largo.ai, Backed by Sylvester Stallone, Partners with Brilliant Pictures to Launch World’s First Fully AI-Automated Film Company Auschwitz Memorial Unveils Digital Replica Project for Virtual Film Location at Cannes Market Europe’s Film and TV Dubbers Fight with AI Factors Driving Growth in the AI Film Market Writing Lessons from an AI-Resurrected Agatha Christie Soundcloud Faces Backlash But Deni...

AI-Powered Digital Twins of Deceased Loved Ones, AI twins serving as mentors, tutors, or interactive textbooks, New Oscar Rules for AI, Arcana Labs AI Film Production Takes on Hollywood In Europe, the Paris AI Policy Action summit in February failed to deliver significant regulation. In the United States, the new administration’s March directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technol...

Generative AI is changing how people use photography to grieve and remember. Instead of static images, photos of the deceased are now animated to move and speak, giving families new ways to connect with lost loved ones. While some find comfort in these digital interactions, others question their authenticity and impact. This shift challenges more than a century of photographic tradition, altering...

California Lawmakers Examine Potential Risks of AI ChatbotsAdobe Invests in Synthesia, the Startup Creating AI Clones for Corporate VideosThe Wizard of Oz Like You’ve Never Seen It BeforeElevenLabs, OpenAI, and DeepMind Invest in Startup Creating AI FilmsYouTube Supports ‘No Fakes Act’Shutterstock Partners with AI-Based Corporate Video CompanyAI Video Generation Startup, Runway, Closes $308M Fundi...

MPA Demands Copyright Protection for AI ContentAI-Dubbed ‘Watch the Skies’ Secures AMC Theatres ReleaseH&M to Use AI-Generated Digital Clones in AdsU.S. Copyright Office Releases Report on Copyrightability of AI-Generated WorksChatGPT’s Ghibli-style AI images raise copyright concernsChatgpt’s Ghibli-style AI images raise copyright concerns Ginger Liu is the founder of Hollywood’s Ginger Media...

A new research report from MIT Technology Review Insights highlights how AI is revolutionizing and accelerating media production while making creative tools more accessible. However, the study also points out that the media industry continues to face significant hurdles as it adapts to this technological shift. The report explores the transformative impact of AI on content creation and distributio...

Entertainment Leaders Warn Against Weakening Copyright for AI Showbiz Contracts: Adapting to the AI RevolutionAI-Generated Art Loses Copyright Battle in US Appeals CourtSpanish Regulators Target Unlabeled AI Content with FinesMeta Faces Copyright Lawsuit from France’s Creative IndustryDeepfake Technology Market to Hit $13.9 Billion as Entertainment and Media Embraces AIPreserving Documentary Accur...