Lareina Zhang didn’t see the last of her grandmother. When her grandmother died, she was stuck at school due to covid-19 pandemic. Her parents did not tell her about her grandmother’s death so as not to interfere with her college entrance exam two months later.

On the day the school was unsealed, Zhang went home without seeing her grandmother, only to learn that she had been gone for more than a month. Yet she had to go on with her life, Zhang can’t help crying while attending classes during that time.

“The teacher was teaching and I was wiping my nose constantly,” Zhang said.

Not seeing her grandmother for the last time, not even saying goodbye to her grandmother is the biggest regret for Zhang.

The “AI Resurrection” gave Zhang the opportunity to make up for this regret.

Willard Wang hopes to make “AI resurrection” affordable for everyone. In the application developed by Wang, customers only need to upload a photo of the deceased loved one, then enter the words they want their loved one to say, choose the tone you want, and in a few minutes you will get the video.

There are many businesses on the Internet that can provide this service, charging hundreds or thousands of Hong Kong dollars, while the cost is often only a few dollars. Yet due to poor information and technical barriers, many customers still pay.

“[Other merchants] go for $100 to sell a video, which I think is a bit excessive.” Wang said.

Before developing the app, a primary school student once approached Wang, hoping to “resurrect” his grandmother. The boy bargained several times. In the end, Wang gave him the video for free.

“So I think we have to show up to keep the price of AI resurrection down.”

Wang’s app was released in February 2024, setting the price around $20. This was one of the reasons why Zhang found Wang, it was cost-effective.

Zhang’s hopes are not that far away. In fact, another group of innovators said they had already dealt with the problem of real-time communication. Their clients could directly talk to the AI version of a relative just as a real phone call.

Zhi Lin, the leader of the innovator group, said their company could create AI models for people. By adding some personal materials to the model, clients can interact and chat with their digital resurrected people. With strong confidence, he priced the AI model service at ￥298 (about HK $328).

From several deals a day, to decades of demands a day, Lin is very optimistic about the future market of this industry. Not only in China, he also received some orders from abroad. Now, he plans to further explore overseas markets.

For the future, he believed that everyone will have their own AI models. “I think technology is advanced enough now, that every person can have their own experiences and stories preserved digitally, just like facebook.”