EU rules do not protect the dead from AI avatars made from their personal data

Study title: From bones to bytes: anticipating and addressing the governance challenges of human digital remains and posthumous digital human twins

The paper examines how AI and extended reality enable creation of avatars and human digital twins from personal and biometric data that persist after death as Human Digital Remains. Using cross-disciplinary analysis and doctrinal review, it finds that current EU instruments do not extend protections to the deceased and identifies urgent legal and ethical gaps.

Read the study abstract

Abstract During the nineteenth century, advances in medical research led to grave robbing and an illicit market in human biological remains (HBR). The historical episode of grave robbing illustrates how science can upend social norms. A similar scenario could soon emerge, but this time it will not be with people's biological remains, but with people's digital remains. Artificial intelligence and extended reality now create digital representations from avatars to human digital twins. In addition to the sophistica…

By the Truvace deskAugust 1, 20261 min read1 sourceEvidence: Emerging · 30/100 — Commentary, opinion, or narrative review · 1 independent sourcePeer-reviewedTRV-2026-0620· cite & verify

From bones to bytes: anticipating and addressing the governance challenges of human digital remains and posthumous digital human twins — "Government Policies on Gaokao migrants" by Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

In brief

This matters because persistent digital replicas raise posthumous privacy, autonomy, and legacy questions that existing data protection and AI regulation were not designed to cover. The authors propose an anticipatory HDR governance framework with six recommendations, but the analysis remains conceptual and does not test implementation, enforcement, or public acceptance.

Main points

AI and extended reality now create digital representations from avatars to human digital twins drawing on personal and biometric data.
These artefacts persist after death as Human Digital Remains forming part of a person's digital estate.
Analysis finds neither GDPR nor the AI Act (2025) currently extends rights to the deceased, leaving legal and ethical gaps.
Authors propose six recommendations including HDR-specific anticipatory governance, posthumous privacy protections, data-donor cards, and rights to continuation or erasure of Digital Human Twins.

The problem

Human Digital Remains created by AI from personal and biometric data face existing legal and ethical gaps because neither GDPR nor the AI Act currently extends rights to the deceased.

The rundown

The study combines conceptual analysis, anticipatory and precautionary governance frameworks, and doctrinal review to map gaps for HDR, drawing a parallel to 19th-century grave robbing for human biological remains.

It details that representations now include complex behavioural and biological replications and proposes tools such as a data-donor card, right to gift or trade HDR, enhanced post-mortem right to be forgotten, and updated digital identity and legacy rights.