Our online lives increasingly outlast us\, leaving our likeness with loved ones grappling with challenging but eterna l questions of legacy\, loss\, and law. How does this digital afterlife cha nge the ways we grieve\, remember\, and honor the wishes of those who have died?
Join Stacey Wales\, whose family created the w
orld's first courtroom AI-generated victim impact statement depicting her l
ate brother (resulting in a sentence recent
ly vacated)\, Christopher Pelkey\; Harvard Law School lecturer and BKC
Faculty Associate Leah Plunkett\; and Harvard professor Kathleen Coleman\, who teaches an interdisciplinary course o
n loss\, for a conversation about the legal\, psychological\, and ethical c
omplexities of AI and death.
Who decides what happens to the data we leave behind\, and who can access\, inherit\, or use it? How might an ongoi ng digital presence offer comfort\, prolong grief\, or transform our relati onships with those we have lost? What happens when the wishes of the deceas ed conflict with the needs of the bereaved\, or when personal remembrance b ecomes part of a public proceeding? Drawing on Wales’ experience alongside legal scholarship and perspectives on loss\, the conversation will explore how digital afterlives intersect with longstanding rituals of mourning\, an d what responsibilities families\, technology companies\, and public instit utions hold toward both the living and the dead.
CATEGORIES:Speaker/Panel LOCATION:Lewis Hall\, 5th floor at the Berkman Klein Center's Multi-Purpose Room 515 GEO:0.000000;0.000000 ORGANIZER;CN="Matt Kristoffersen":MAILTO:mkristoffersen@jd27.law.harvard.ed u URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/what-remains-ai-death-and-loss -2/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-21-at-3.48.29-PM-scaled.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20260308T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR