Charlie Kirk's AI resurrection ushers in a new era of digital grief

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/charlie-kirk-artificial-intelligence-worship-services-6c0f9b7e7ec6360a18df418d22cf9418

Charlie Kirk’s AI resurrection ushers in a new era of digital grief
By JACK JENKINS
Updated 10:28 AM CDT, September 19, 2025


This combination of images gathered in September 2025 from social media posts shows AI-generated content depicting conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Religion News Service via AP)

(RNS) — Megachurch pastor Jack Graham was in the middle of his Sunday message to Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, this past weekend when he paused to cue up an unusual sermon illustration. After encouraging people to respond to the killing of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk by turning to God, he instructed the congregation to listen to a roughly minute-long audio clip of what sounded like Kirk delivering a short speech.

“Hear what Charlie is saying regarding what happened to him this past week,” Graham said.

As the clip, which encouraged listeners to “pick up your cross, and get back in the fight,” ended, the congregation burst into applause. A few seconds later, they rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

But the clip they listened to was not, in fact, Charlie Kirk from beyond the grave. As Graham made clear when he introduced the segment, the congregation was listening to a production generated entirely by artificial intelligence: The clip, which has gone viral online, was a cloned version of Kirk’s voice delivering what appeared to be an AI-generated response from a chatbot asked what Kirk would say in the wake of his own death.

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