Experts worry that because of a lack of regulation around these new generative tools, some parents may be hindering their healing instead of facilitating it. — Pixabay
The Facebook video depicted a girl with dyed blonde hair, lounging on a plush outside patio in gray sweatpants. Her legs were crossed, and she faced the camera. In the bottom left corner of the video was an emblem of a blue dolphin jumping through a heart.
"Hi there, I'm Rachel DeMaio," said the girl. But something was off. Rachel's body didn't move with her face.
"You're probably wondering why I'm not with you speaking right now in person," she said. "It's because I'm speaking to you from heaven."
The video was AI-generated, created by Rachel's family to spread awareness about the harms of fentanyl. The real Rachel DeMaio, from Akron, Ohio, died in 2016 at the age of 17 after overdosing on carfentanil, an extremely potent form of the synthetic opioid that's killed hundreds of thousands of people since its rise a decade ago.
A video like this is not an isolated incident. Parents have been using AI tools to generate new images – photos, videos and more – of children they lost to fentanyl. Many of these parents are part of the self-ascribed "Angel Mom" community of parents whose children have died.
Many say that, without any new photographs of their kids, the practice has helped them heal and feel close to them.
Others worry this use of AI has gone too far.
"It helped me heal a little bit, keeping his memory alive, and thinking of him at this time, how he would look now," said Tammy Plakstis, a Florida resident and advocate who lost her 29-year-old son Dylan in 2020 to fentanyl.
For two years, Plakstis has been creating these images for her son and for other moms in her position. Embraced by the Angel Mom community when Dylan died, Plakstis connected with another mom, Robin Johnson, who generated images until teaching her how to make them herself. Plakstis typically uses the Photolab app, which has an AI generative feature, or Canva.
One post by Plakstis shows an AI-generated bust of Dylan, against an outer space backdrop, with a fiery heart and cursive text reading, "Angel of Mine." Below the post are 81 comments, each from different moms, asking Plakstis to put their child's picture through the same template. The whole thread feels like an unending virtual memorial.
Plakstis posts the AI images as a reply to each mom. She is showered with praise for her efforts, which in total have consumed thousands of her waking hours over the past two years. "You are truly a gift," reads one comment. "That is striking. Love it!"
Tammy Plakstis calls the process of generating AI images of her son Dylan, who died from fentanyl in 2020 at age 29, "kind of like an addiction."Tammy Plakstis calls the process of generating AI images of her son Dylan, who died from fentanyl in 2020 at age 29, "kind of like an addiction."
But there are experts who worry that because of a lack of regulation around these new generative tools, some parents may be hindering their healing instead of facilitating it.
"The psychology of grief and memory can be very complex. I don't think we fully understand how access to AI tools is going to change the grieving process, and how people memorialize their loved ones," said Alex John London, a K&L Gates professor of ethics and computational technologies at Carnegie Mellon University. "Conversely, I'm not sure we fully understand how these tools are going to complicate that process."
While the examples London saw from Plakstis' Facebook pages seemed benign and harmless, he worried about a future where a company charges grieving parents for AI images, profiting off their pain, or where parents use the technology to age them.
One AI-generated image on Facebook depicts Ryan Powell, a Greensburg resident who died from fentanyl in 2017 at age 34, in a black suit, against a smooth gray backdrop, as if he were getting his portrait taken. (Plakstis also has a version of Dylan in this same template.)
"That's a great pic of him. Nice," reads one comment below the picture.
His mother, Sonja Cox, responded: "It's just a graphic. He never looked like that."
"No but that is probably what he could have looked like right," the commenter replied.
She responded: "Yes."
Plakstis also said she has used the technology to envision her son Dylan today, insisting the practice has helped her heal.
Lynn Beck feels differently.
The Pittsburgh native and Bedford County resident lost her daughter, Jessie Deni, in 2018, to fentanyl. She was 24.
Beck says AI images of Jessie came from another Angel Mom randomly and without her asking. One showed her daughter in a wedding dress, while another depicted Jessie riding a horse, something she never did.
Beck appreciated the sentiment and the time taken to create the images, but said she was put off by the ways in which they didn't accurately portray her daughter and her hobbies.
These AI tools are incredibly easy to access, and, in the US, few regulations exist.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have begun to pay attention. In July, Gov. Shapiro signed a bill into law preventing the nonconsensual AI rendering of people's likeness for fraudulent or harmful uses, such as to run scams. In a news release about the law, Shapiro said the commonwealth is at the forefront of thoughtful and innovative AI policy.
Other bills are in nascent stages. Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Berks/Montgomery, introduced a Republican-backed bill on Oct. 8 aiming to curb AI deepfakes related to child sexual abuse materials. S.B. 1050 now sits in committee.
Arvind Venkat, D-Allegheny, introduced H.B. 1925 in July to require hospitals, clinicians and insurance companies to plainly disclose the use of AI and to cement a human decision-maker in matters of health care. It was referred to a House committee on Oct. 6.
"We just have so little experience with these tools that it's difficult to know what are going to be uses of them that can become problematic for people," said London. "You can use the tools to represent your loved one in ways that are not faithful to who they were, and, in that sense, you start to not honor a person's memory, but alter that memory."
Beck has been moved by a few AI-generated images of Jessie – ones where her features are enhanced or colour is added, or images that depict Jessie as an angel.
"The ones that are done that look like she's in heaven, those bring me peace," she said. "I believe in heaven, and that's where I believe she is. The ones with angel wings, that helps with my grieving."
Other parents, she worries, have taken it to the extreme. She knows many who post multiple graphics a day and fear they're missing out if they miss a request for a specific themed template, like a fall-themed backdrop or one with rainbow hearts.
"It's kind of like an addiction," said Plakstis.
Despite not responding to those who continue to send AI images of Jessie to Beck, she says they keep coming. Beck has stopped saving them to her phone.
"For some parents, it's a way for them to keep their child alive in their mind," said Beck. "They are constantly looking for new graphics. To me, it's not healthy at all."
Plakstis says some family members have responded with intrigue.
"Some people in my family think it's totally weird," she said.
Beck's other children similarly dislike the AI images of Jessie, discouraging her to post them publicly.
But after multiple years using AI to create these kinds of graphics, Plakstis says the exercise has moved beyond being about Dylan.
"It's about helping the moms, just like Robin helped me," she said. "I'm just like, paying that forward. It's not going to bring our kids back. It just helps with healing a little bit."
And as these tools become more sophisticated, it's likely that videos like those representing 17-year-old Rachel DeMaio will also become more widespread. With legislation lagging, it's unclear how that will muddy the grieving process. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Tribune News Service
