It sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi film: virtual-reality humans that mimic the voices and facial expressions of dead people, so loved ones can speak to them from beyond the grave. But now a Korean artificial intelligence firm has made that'ghoulish' vision a reality, insisting the controversial service will help friends and family cope with grief. The technology uses machine learning to process images, audio recordings and video footage of recently deceased people to create a virtual version that can interact with the living, as if on a video call. Called re;memory, the software can even answer questions from the grieving, and share memories from the past. It is expected to cost between £10,000 and £20,000 to create a virtual person, then £1,000 each time a loved one wants a conversation with it. Business development manager Joseph Murphy acknowledged that the service was controversial.

Virtual people are a combination of animation, sound tech and machine learning that create digitized human beings who can sing and even interact …

Typically the presenters at a CES press conference don't get a lot of attention. Wearing a pink hooded sweatshirt with the phrase "Stay punk forever," Reah Keem was among presenters highlighting some of the offerings from LG, ranging from appliances to personal technology. LG describes her as a "virtual composer and DJ made even more human through deep learning technology." Keem was there to introduce the LG CLOi robot, which can disinfect high-traffic areas using ultraviolet light. You can watch Reah make her debut during LG's press conference Monday morning, at roughly the 22-minute mark.

When Andrew Kaplan reminisces, his engrossing tales leave the impression that he's managed to pack multiple lives into a single existence: globe-trotting war correspondent in his 20s, a member of the Israeli army who fought in the Six-Day War, successful entrepreneur and, later, the author of numerous spy novels and Hollywood scripts. Now -- as the silver-haired 78-year-old unwinds with his wife of 39 years in a suburban oasis outside Palm Springs -- he has realized he would like his loved ones to have access to those stories, even when he's no longer alive to share them. Kaplan has agreed to become "AndyBot," a virtual person who will be immortalized in the cloud for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. If all goes according to plan, future generations will be able to interact with him using mobile devices or voice computing platforms such as Amazon's Alexa, asking him questions, eliciting stories and drawing upon a lifetime's worth of advice long after his physical body is gone. Someday, Kaplan -- who playfully refers to himself as a "guinea pig" -- may be remembered as one of the world's first "digital humans."