Photo Credit: Jack Osbourne (@jackosbourne / YouTube)
Ozzy Osbourne’s AI avatar will be “so tasteful,” Jack Osbourne promises after rampant fan backlash to the announcement he and Sharon made last week.
The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, hasn’t been dead for a year, but his son Jack and wife Sharon are recreating his persona as a lifesized AI-powered avatar. The Osbournes announced the project last week at Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, partnering with tech companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to make it happen.
“It’s kind of scary how it’s really very accurate,” Jack Osbourne told the audience at Licensing Expo. “He will exist digitally as himself for as long as we have computers.”
“This is a living performance, not a rendering; and it draws from nothing that wasn’t given willingly,” said Hyperreal chief executive Remington Scott, who noted that the avatar was build “exclusively from authenticated, approved source material: curated, consented, and controlled” by the Osbourne family. “We have the enthusiastic participation of Ozzy’s family, and that changes everything about what this can be.”
But fans are already expressing their disappointment at what they perceive as disrespect to the rock star’s legacy. While the Osbourne family hasn’t explicitly said that the Ozzy avatar will be used to advertise anything outside the family’s own enterprises, fans worry such a deal will be distasteful and against the late musician’s wishes.
“Wow! A year hasn’t even passed since Ozzy’s passing, and they are already trying to commercialize and profit from his memory,” wrote one fan.
“Poor dude’s soul was literally floating away but was quickly lassoed by Sharon and then yanked back down to earth, where he’ll be on digital life support and forced to continue dancing for every sad soul who wants to ask him a question… except it’s not even him,” criticized another. “This will go on long after we’re dead and gone unless someone does the same to us.”
Jack Osbourne responded to the criticism during a YouTube livestream over the weekend. “It’s gonna be so tasteful, what we’re doing and it’s not gonna be fucking lame,” said Jack. “It’s really complex what we’re doing. This isn’t just like hooking up an image of my dad to ChatGPT. This is some high-level technology that we’re gonna be working with, and it’s gonna feel very real, and it’s kind of wild out it will be utilized.”
Crucially, Jack claimed he had discussed the idea with his father before he died.
“It’s really cool, and it’s something that I think my dad would be into,” he added. “We actually talked about it before he passed, about doing something like this. […] I know he would be into this.”
It’s not the first time a musician will be given the avatar or hologram treatment after their passing. There have been digital recreations of artists like Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison, Maria Callas, and Michael Jackson.
In 2018, a touring hologram of Amy Winehouse was announced, just seven years after her death, a move that attracted harsh criticism from fans and those who argued that an artist who didn’t like to tour should be allowed to rest. Ultimately, that project was scrapped due to “unique challenges and sensitivities.”
