Speaker

Dr. Jenny Kidd, Cardiff University

Title

AI Afterlives: Synthetic Media and the Ethics of Representing the Dead

About the seminar

AI systems capable of animating images, generating voices, or simulating conversations with the dead are increasingly embedded within commercial platforms and institutional settings. These technologies do more than preserve digital traces: they generate new forms of posthumous presence from the data of the deceased. Drawing on the Leverhulme Trust–funded Synthetic Pasts project, this seminar examines a range of emerging revival practices, from posthumous chatbots to experimental uses of ‘AI afterlives' within heritage contexts. It argues that AI revival practices are moving beyond experimental novelty into the infrastructures of platforms and cultural institutions, where decisions about how the dead are represented are increasingly shaped by computational systems.

About dr. Jenny Kidd

Formerly a web designer-developer, Dr. Jenny Kidd now researches digital culture. Recent publications have explored; algorithmic systems and digital memory, social media communications, and varied uses of immersive media. Jenny's research uses mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as creative approaches.

Jenny is currently leading the Leverhulme Trust Synthetic Pasts project. You can find out more about the project in this short film, explore our work on 'deathbots' in this article for The Conversation (or short film), and access our collaboratively produced Responsible AI Afterlives Workbook for cultural professionals. The book AI Afterlives: digital memory and synthetic pasts will be published by Bloomsbury in 2026.

Jenny is a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (2024-2026) and a Research Fellow for the AHRC's Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre. Jenny has led a masterclass for the UK Government Digital Service, been an invited expert for Welsh Government and UK Parliament, and has appeared in the media and trade press, as well as on podcasts, to talk about her research.

Jenny's books are Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling [with Alke Gröppel-Wegener, 2019], Representation: Key Ideas in Media and Cultural Studies [2015] and Museums in the New Mediascape: Transmedia, Participation, Ethics [2014]. Edited books include Challenging History in the Museum [2014, Routledge] and Performing Heritage [2011]. Jenny is series Co-Editor of Bloomsbury Studies in Digital Cultures.

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