EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security

Year 3 Student – 2021 Intake – Cohort 3

After quitting my IT audit, risk and compliance career in the Financial Industry, I took the plunge to return to academia to pursue a PhD via the University of Bristol’s Centre of Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity. The choice complements both my professional (CISA, CRISC, CDPSE, CISSP, ISO27001, ITIL, GDPR and PRINCE2) and previous academic achievements (BSc Social Sciences and MSc Information Security). My thesis keeps to the theme of governance but in a completely new field which is what I sought: immersive technology. I also wanted to explore governance in a public, non-corporate setting; hence, the foci being the governance of digital immortality.

Governance of Digital Immortality

‘Digital Immortality’, conceived by Microsoft researchers at the turn of this century (Bell & Gray, 2000), ignited visions of the possibility of a ‘Digital Afterlife’ and virtual online personas that could live long after the physical death of their human templates. These presences, formed by the digital remains of a living person, have already been trialled through ‘griefbots’ and avatars. With the motion set for a potential ‘grief tech’ industry through investments in products and services that heavily rely on generative AI, such as ‘Eter9’ and ‘StoryFile’, avatars of the deceased are increasingly likely to be a part of life and death.   

If these products and services were to become mainstream, how should they be governed and regulated, if at all? Within academic circles, concerns regarding human dignity, posthumous privacy, personality rights and ethics have already highlighted gaps within legal and policy frameworks, including issues such as the rights of the deceased, their avatars and the bereaved. These intersect with complex moral and spiritual considerations, including grief, loss and memorialisation. However, there are also technical hurdles to ponder, such as, how far can these virtual resurrections be believed if they are to be used in cases that provide comfort and benefit.  

The impact of these technological innovations remains uncertain and under-researched. Further, history has shown that it repeats itself as previous attempts at governing other technologies have often occurred during long lags between innovation, understanding of its wider impacts and a governance response or often that it is too late as a ‘lock-in’ has occurred (Collingridge, 1980; Lanier, 2011). Nevertheless, if timed well and with a collaborative approach with stakeholders, an anticipatory governance framework could be applied to potentially control the direction of this industry.

To inform the design of such a framework, this thesis follows a flexible design process where later studies are determined by earlier findings (Robson & McCartan, 2016). Thus far, the PhD commenced with a systematic literature review, followed by a governance gap analysis and semi-structured expert interviews with technologists, policymakers and those working in palliative care. The themes emerging from their answers suggest governance is needed but an important stakeholder yet to be engaged with is the users. Therefore, a public engagement would follow which is planned for 2024 before concluding the research with potential guidance on how to govern the phenomenon.

Supervisors: Professor Richard Owen (Bristol), Professor Andrew Charlesworth (Bristol)

View poster here

• December 2022: https://www.techuk.org/digital-ethics-summit-2022.html
• January 2023: https://www.thesasig.com/calendar/event/23-01-18-future/
• January 2023: https://www.rephrain.ac.uk/rephrain-showcase-january-2023/
• March 2023: https://riscs.org.uk/the-riscs-launch-ecr-perspectives/
• May 2023: https://digifootprints.co.uk/digital-footprints-2023/
• May 2023: https://blogit.itu.dk/dors/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2023/05/DORS6-programme.pdf
• September 2023: WeF - Artificial intelligence regulation and market development in the UK
• September 2023: https://sites.google.com/view/maryammjd/cyfer-project
• October/November 2023: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cdt/cyber-security/ri-challenge/ri-challenge-2023/
• November 2023: https://aifringe.org/events/digging-deeper-ai-biology-people-culture-and-climate
• November 2023: https://www.ipt.org.uk/Events/Event-News/Details/Weekly-Events-Blog-20-November---21-November (immersive technology briefing only)
• December 2023: https://www.sectorplandls.nl/wordpress/winter-school-data-personalization-and-the-law/

Professor Richard Owen - Echoborg Qualitative Analysis
HP Labs - Zero Trust Regulatory Comparison