Ozzy Osbourne appeared as an AI-generated image at a recent Rod Stewart concert, prompting questions about how the ghoulish phenomenon will affect grieving
Rod Stewart had a few surprise guests at a recent concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. His old friend Ozzy Osbourne, the lead singer of Black Sabbath who died last month, was apparently beamed in from some kind of rock heaven, where he was reunited with other departed stars including Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Bob Marley.
The AI-generated images divided Stewart’s fans. Some denounced them as disrespectful and distasteful; others found the tribute beautiful.
At about the same time, another AI controversy erupted when Jim Acosta, a former CNN White House correspondent, interviewed a digital recreation of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed at the age of 17 in a 2018 high school shooting in Florida. The avatar of the teenager was created by his parents, who said it was a blessing to hear his voice again.
In June, Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, posted on X an animation of his late mother hugging him when he was a child, created from a photograph. “Damn, I wasn’t ready for how this would feel. We didn’t have a camcorder, so there’s no video of me with my mom … This is how she hugged me. I’ve rewatched it 50 times,” he wrote.
