In this paper, digital afterlife is considered as one
of the ethically ambiguous phenomena associated with the development of AI. Digital afterlife is defined as the ways in which
digital imitations and digital identities of deceased people are
handled in the course of socio-cultural relationships and interactions. In modern society, digital afterlife creates a possibility of
reimagining death and mourning rituals, setting new boundaries,
meanings and traditions. That creates a necessity for ethical
analyses that addresses the risks and current ambiguities at hand.
Despite the existence of a wide range of recommendations in
Russian thought regarding digital imitations, as such, solutions
to a range of ethical problems and contradictions are not
presented. To overcome terminological ambiguity, the definitions
of digital imitation of a deceased person, digital personality of
a deceased person, and digital afterlife were derived. The three
most significant problems of the digital afterlife are identified
and analyzed: personal identity, personal data, and the religious
and cultural aspects