
Since the dawn of man, we’ve wanted to live forever.
Today, our legacy extends beyond our lifetimes, but what if we could pass our soul and spirit to generative AI, allowing us to live into eternity? Documentarians Hans Block and Maritz Riesewieck posed that question in Eternal You.
Eternal You opens with the story of Joshua Barbeau, who longs to speak with his high school fiancee, Jessica. She passed away before graduating, and the two never got the chance to marry. With the help of Project December, Jessica’s essence was recreated using OpenAI’s language model, allowing Joshua to converse with her. Joshua rarely left his house for months, immersed in conversations with Jessica. Is this ethical?
From here, the documentary explores other cases of connecting with our past and using AI to bring our friends and family back to life. Christi Angel never had the opportunity to say goodbye to Cameroun until she had a chance to build a computer avatar of him.
One family took recordings of their deceased patriarch and brought him back to life. Generative AI was used to create worlds and sentences in his voice that did not exist in recordings.
The organization, “You, Only virtual” offers a service that allows you to input your history, memories, thoughts, and philosophies into AI, allowing you to live forever and always be there for your family for generations to come.

“…a grieving mother… meets her daughter for the first time since her death.”
The film ends with the most controversial use of AI. For a South Korean television show, an AI company was allowed to create a virtual version of her deceased daughter for a grieving mother. With reality show cameras following her, the mother is placed in a VR environment, and while wearing a VR headset, she meets her daughter for the first time since her death. After the broadcast, viewers had mixed reactions to what they witnessed. Is this right? Do we have an ethical responsibility to preserve our past or risk allowing AI to alter it?
I will continue to beat the drum on what makes a great documentary. Eternal You is great because it forces you to consider your position without ever taking an official position. In other words, it presents both sides and then asks some tough questions to spur you to formulate a position that is specifically yours. Also, I love wrestling with film, and to the filmmaker’s credit, this means I’m engaged with the doc and everything it says.
Each story in Eternal You is well told, building sympathy for those wanting to reconnect with their past while at the same time asking those tough questions and constantly questioning whether this is right, juxtaposed with the good intentions for everyone involved. The biggest red flag for me is how many of these companies state right out that you own the data and that your privacy is important. My experience with companies like these is that some soulless corporation buys these companies and rewrites their terms of service.
Watching Eternal You is like watching a ping pong match; just when you think this might be a good idea, it asks philosophical, emotional, and practical questions. I’ll give you my conclusion, and you’re free to disagree with me. I don’t like the idea of a loved one who has passed living in AI because the more you interact with the AI version of your loved one, the more the AI takes over the authentic memories you have of your loved one. The real version and the AI version will get muddled together to where your memories will be replaced, and your loved one will be lost forever.
The AI train has left the station, and there’s no going back. The question ultimately becomes how long can we hold off the inevitable? Either way, Eternal You is an excellent documentary because it engages you along the way, and you’re constantly wrestling with the issue long after the credits roll.

"…is this ethical?"