A disturbing new trend has emerged from the fog of Russia’s war in Ukraine: families are using generative artificial intelligence to create lifelike avatars of soldiers killed in combat. The practice, dubbed “digital resurrection,” has raised urgent ethical and security concerns among British cyber intelligence officials, who warn it could be exploited for propaganda, disinformation, and psychological warfare. GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has flagged the phenomenon as a “growing threat vector” that blurs the line between personal grief and state-sponsored manipulation.
The avatars, often built using chatbots or deepfake video tools, enable bereaved relatives to hold text or voice conversations with a simulation of their loved one. In some cases, families have even generated videos showing the deceased delivering messages from beyond the grave. These AI constructs are trained on personal data from social media, text messages, and voice recordings, creating an uncanny facsimile that can respond in real time. While some see it as a coping mechanism for trauma, security experts fear that malicious actors could weaponize the technology to extract intelligence or sow discord.
The NCSC has issued an advisory noting that Russian state-linked groups have already experimented with deepfake technology for disinformation campaigns. The risk is that these AI resurrections could be subtly altered to push pro-Kremlin narratives, undermine Ukraine’s war effort, or even manipulate the families into unwittingly sharing sensitive information. “It is a deeply unsettling development,” said Dr. Alina Petrova, a digital ethics researcher at Cambridge University. “You have a technology designed for comfort being repurposed as a vector for influence operations. The human vulnerability is immense.”
The ethical quagmire is equally profound. Critics argue that creating an AI simulacrum of a deceased person without their explicit consent amounts to digital grave robbing. In Russia, where the true death toll of the war is heavily censored, these avatars could also serve to hide the scale of losses by presenting an illusion of continued connection. “This is a form of grief manipulation,” said Julian Vane, Technology & Innovation Lead. “We are seeing the darker side of generative AI where empathy is hijacked for geopolitical ends. The user experience of society is being redesigned without any informed consent.”
The UK has already seen similar cases on its own soil, with companies offering “digital immortality” services to bereaved families. However, the intelligence dimension is new and alarming. The NCSC is urging families to be cautious about sharing personal data with AI resurrection services, as it could be harvested by state actors or criminal gangs. The agency is also working with social media platforms to identify and flag suspicious AI-generated content that may be part of a coordinated influence campaign.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has condemned the practice as “psychological terrorism” and called for international regulation of AI grief technology. President Zelenskyy’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, described it as “an assault on the sanctity of memory” and warned that it could retraumatise already grieving families. “They are turning our dead into tools,” he said.
The broader implications for digital sovereignty are clear. As AI becomes more sophisticated, the boundary between authentic human interaction and machine-generated illusion will continue to erode. Julian Vane argues that we need a new social contract for the digital age: “We must decide as a society where the line is drawn. Technology can enhance our humanity, but it can also commodify our most intimate connections. The resurrection of the dead for profit or propaganda should be a red line that we do not cross.”
The NCSC’s alert is a stark reminder that the war in Ukraine is not only fought with tanks and missiles but also with algorithms and avatars. For the families who use these AI ghosts, the comfort they seek may come at a price no one is ready to pay.
