World News for Students of English

09-01-2023 15:00

Deceased artists are performing as holograms, and they are even releasing music through digital updates; however, this technology raises many concerns.

The concerns started with the holographic resurrection of Tupac Shakur at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival which critics called creepy. The use of the technology continued with tours for jazz rock musician Frank Zappa, opera singer Maria Callas, and R&B singer Amy Winehouse. The family of pop singer Selena Quintanilla announced a new posthumous album, and it’ll digitally age the artist’s voice to make it sound as if she were still alive.

Over the past years, many have questioned whether these posthumous performances are celebrating a legacy or exploiting the dead. A documentary about food icon Anthony Bourdain used AI to recreate his voice and say things that he never said. This incident raised concerns about what happens to our digital likeness without our permission.

Difficult words: resurrection (return from the dead), posthumous (happening after a person’s death), legacy (something that’s left when a person dies).

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