- Holograms are weird. Frankly, we’re still not over that Will.i.am thing. Nevertheless, the public’s desire to watch a translucent avatar play their favorite songs persists, with crowds flocking to a recent tour headlined by a Roy Orbison hologram. The next star to get the treatment? Late singer Amy Winehouse, who died from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27.
So we have live projections of celebrities, deep fakes, and digital manipulation of video that can be used to make it appear that a person is saying things they are not. For a long time now, celebrity personas have been more or less manufactured in boardrooms. I am imagining a world where the ownership of a personality is not clear. Maybe in 2080, an election campaign can rent a celebrity personality to endorse their candidate. Maybe the human at the center of the celebrity doesn't want to endorse that candidate. Too bad for them. The company will just fire up the projectors and point an AI at them.
I could be wrong, but I think David Bowie was the first entertainer to sell bonds of “himself.” Meaning, not just his music but also his image and likeness and made it publicly available. As I recall he raised many millions this way and used the funds to buy back his master recordings. Something like that. Point is, celebrities could take their likeness “public.” Your 401k could include some Kanye in it.
I think this is inevitable for dead celebrities, but I hadn't yet considered the possibility of doing this with still living celebrities. Personally I'd say there's a big difference between watching an artist live and watching a pre-recorded hologram. Theatre versus film comes to mind as a comparison. The technology is still in its infancy though. In not too many years the holograms will no longer be pre-recorded, but will be able to respond to the audience, even take requests and improvise during the concert.