
AI Afterlives
Digital Memory and Synthetic Pasts
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 6. August 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-43752-4 (ISBN)
Description
AI Afterlives offers the first empirically informed investigation of how algorithms and automation are being used to 'revive' media fragments from the past, from animating old photographs of our ancestors, to creating deathbots, or using the likeness of deceased actors in films. It draws on a series of unique and innovatively designed datasets to trace the ethical, emotional, mnemonic and political dimensions of creating synthetic pasts.
Situated at the intersection of Digital Memory, New Media and Critical Algorithm Studies, the book speaks to a range of pressing concerns about what futures our uses of AI will facilitate, what ethical challenges these systems suggest in the present, and how our relationship to the past is oriented and experienced.
Situated at the intersection of Digital Memory, New Media and Critical Algorithm Studies, the book speaks to a range of pressing concerns about what futures our uses of AI will facilitate, what ethical challenges these systems suggest in the present, and how our relationship to the past is oriented and experienced.
Reviews / Votes
AI Afterlives is a highly engaging read. It offers important new vocabularies for thinking about how today's algorithmic systems shape the ways we remember, mourn, and reimagine personal and collective pasts. The book envisions synthetic pasts beyond data exploitation. * Johanna Sumiala, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland * Kidd and Nieto McAvoy offer an urgent and compelling call for the recognition of the human amidst the risks to AI's distorting, flattening and erasing of the future of memory. * Andrew Hoskins, Author of Memorybot *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
15 bw illus, 7 tables
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-43752-4 (9781350437524)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
approx. 07/2026
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.49
Available for download

E-Book
approx. 07/2026
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.49
Available for download
Persons
Jenny Kidd is a Reader at Cardiff University, UK.
Eva Nieto McAvoy is a Lecturer at King's College London, UK.
Eva Nieto McAvoy is a Lecturer at King's College London, UK.
Content
List of figures
List of tables
1. Introduction: Deep learning technologies and the future past
2. Synthetic media | Synthetic pasts
3. Genealogy platforms and AI afterlives
4. Deathbots and the platformisation of remembering
5. Datafied bodies on stage and screen
6. AI afterlives in the museum
7. Conclusion
8. Data coda
Bibliography
List of tables
1. Introduction: Deep learning technologies and the future past
2. Synthetic media | Synthetic pasts
3. Genealogy platforms and AI afterlives
4. Deathbots and the platformisation of remembering
5. Datafied bodies on stage and screen
6. AI afterlives in the museum
7. Conclusion
8. Data coda
Bibliography