What is it about?
Cultural schemas critically mediate acceptance of AI-mediated afterlife technologies, with ritual adaptation serving as a key factor. • Design failures in DeathTech exacerbate exclusion for marginalized communities, highlighting the urgency of participatory and inclusive approaches. • Current governance models lack cultural-religious pluralism, necessitating transnational ethics councils and sacred-data protocols. • A triadic framework (cultural mediation, inclusive design, pluralistic governance) is proposed to guide ethical and equitable DeathTech development. • The study advances digital thanatology by introducing concepts like "ritual friction" and "theological AI alignment."
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Why is it important?
Key findings suggest that ritual adaptation and spiritual meanings are critical to the acceptance of this technology. Jewish and Japanese communities show high acceptance through cultural integration, while Hindu and Luhya communities experience ontological dissonance. Design failures such as linguistic exclusion and ritual incongruence impact marginalized groups. In addition, regulatory gaps exist, especially in post-death privacy protection and algorithmic bias. This study proposes a triadic framework for the development of ethical and equitable DeathTech: cultural mediation, inclusive design, and pluralistic governance. This contribution enriches the study of digital thanatology and provides recommendations for culturally and socially sustainable innovation.
Perspectives
I hope this article makes what people might think is a boring, slightly abstract area like health economics and measuring things like health, kind of interesting and maybe even exciting. Because the way we spend money on health and social care is not just a problem for politicians, managers and researchers to worry about - it is an issue that touches every single human being on this planet in one way or another. More than anything else, and if nothing else, I hope you find this article thought-provoking.
Dr. Dwi Mariyono
Universitas Islam Malang
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ethical and Psychological Implications of Generative AI in Digital Afterlife Technologies: A Systematic Literature Review on Responsible Inclusive Innovation, Journal of Responsible Technology, September 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrt.2025.100136.
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