夜雨聆风这两天，AI短片《纸手机》悄然刷屏。没有炫酷特效，没有跌宕剧情，仅凭一段孩童念亲的朴素故事，便戳中了无数人的心底。
该片讲述了一个连“去世”都不懂的小男孩，却想用自己攒下的15块钱，给奶奶烧一部“纸手机”的故事。卖纸器的老板先画了一部假手机打发他，得知真相后却追了出去，用“信号不好”“奶奶付过钱了”这些略显笨拙的借口，温柔地帮小男孩圆了这个梦。
视频发出后迅速引发了网友们的热议，评论区里，有人泪崩，有人想起了已经离开的亲人，还有网友说：“最没有人味的AI，拍出了最有人味的短片。”
可以说，AI创作正越来越有“人味儿”。这一方面说明创作者们在提升故事表达能力的同时，技术也在不断进化，越来越具备承载个人表达与丰富情感的能力。
其中还有一个最明显的变化，是AI在哀悼中扮演的日益重要的角色。
这正是36岁的AI应用“宛在”创始人徐祥鹏的灵感来源。这个应用可以让人们复刻已故“数字亲人”，进行文字聊天、语音通话，甚至视频对话。
One of the most visible changes is the growing role of AI in mourning.
That is what inspired Xu Xiangpeng, 36, founder of the AI app Wanzai. The app allows people to create digital versions of deceased loved ones for text chats, voice calls, and even video conversations.
徐祥鹏分享了一个用户的故事：曾有一位悲痛的母亲前往呼伦贝尔草原，希望能与她已故的儿子视频通话，向他展示眼前的广阔景色。因为，这是母子俩曾约定要一起来的地方。
而如今，在她的屏幕上，与她进行视频通话的并不是她真正的儿子，而是通过“宛在AI”生成的“数字复刻”。这个年轻人此前因癌症去世，通过这种数字“重逢”，这位母亲找到了表达思念和爱的方式。
Xu shared a story from one of the app's users: a grieving mother who traveled to the Hulunbuir grassland and video-called her late son, showing him the vast landscape. "This is where we agreed to come together," she told him.
On her screen, however, was not her real son, but an AI-generated replica through Wanzai. The young man had died of cancer, and through this digital encounter, the mother found a way to express her longing and love.
“这不是为了取代逝者或拒绝接受失去亲人的现状，”徐祥鹏说道，“而是为了让纪念变得更加具体。”
"It's not about replacing the dead or refusing to accept loss," Xu said. "It is about making remembrance more tangible."
这个想法其实源于十年前徐祥鹏的一个早期项目，该项目帮助家庭保存已故亲人的数字遗产。当时，徐祥鹏团队就注意到人们有更深层次的需求：大家想要的不仅仅是存储信息档案，他们希望可以互动。
因此，随着大型语言模型的快速发展，徐祥鹏团队在2023年底重建了产品，上线了现在的“宛在AI”。
The idea grew out of an earlier project launched a decade ago, which helped families preserve the digital data of the deceased.
Even then, Xu's team noticed a deeper need: people wanted more than archived information — they wanted something they could interact with.
So, in late 2023, with rapid progress in large language models, Xu's team rebuilt the product into what would become Wanzai.
“在中国文化中，死亡是最后的告别。此后，故事便开始消逝。我们希望技术能减缓这种消逝，让普通人，而不仅仅是历史上著名的人物，留下些许更长久的东西，”徐祥鹏说道。
"In Chinese culture, death is a final goodbye. After that, stories begin to fade. We hope technology can slow that fading, allowing ordinary people — not just the historically famous — to leave something lasting behind," Xu said.
尽管如此，这些新的哀悼形式仍然存在争议。
一些批评者质疑逝者的“AI复刻”以及数字对话是否太过了。有人将其视为哗众取宠，还有人则认为这些形式不尊重逝者、有些诡异甚至是不吉利。
Even so, these new forms of mourning remain controversial. Critics question whether AI replicas and digital conversations with the dead go too far. Some dismiss them as attention-seeking. Others consider them disrespectful, eerie, or even inauspicious.
但徐祥鹏对此有不同观点。他相信这些工具满足了失去亲人的人们的真实情感需求。“宛在AI”的早期用户，比他预想得更能包容技术上的局限性。
当该在2024年上线时，语音克隆技术还远远不够完美。然而，一位用户在评论中写道：“我听到了妈妈的声音。虽然只有60%的准确度，但当她叫我的名字时，我哭了。”
Xu, however, sees it differently. He believes these tools meet a real emotional need among people who have lost loved ones. Early users of Wanzai, he said, were more tolerant of technical limitations than he had expected. When the app launched in 2024, voice cloning was still far from seamless. Yet one user wrote in a review: "I heard my mother's voice. It's only 60 percent accurate, but when she said my name, I cried."
“宛在AI”的用户数据还表明，人们通过AI进行的哀悼行为，会随着时间的推移有所改变。徐祥鹏表示，许多用户最初会与“AI复刻”表达自己痛苦愤怒或者难以置信。然而，随着时间的流逝，这些对话内容逐渐变成了分享日常生活。尽管用户所展现的情感因情况而异，但总体上趋于更加积极。
Wanzai's user data also suggests that people's relationship with AI-mediated mourning evolves over time. According to Xu, many users initially spoke to AI replicas about pain, anger, or disbelief. Gradually, however, those conversations shifted toward sharing updates about everyday life. While emotions varied from case to case, they tended overall to become more positive.
对徐祥鹏而言，这些反馈指向了比技术本身更深层次的东西。
“每个人都想念逝去的人，”他说道。“这就是为什么我相信大多数人会愿意拥有一个充满真实感的AI来复刻已故亲友的音容笑貌，尤其是在节日或者生活中的悲欢时刻，能够继续与他们分享。”
For Xu, these reactions point to something deeper than technology itself.
"Everyone misses the people they've lost," he said. "That's why I believe most would welcome a truly realistic AI — one that sounds and behaves like them — especially during festivals or in life's hardest and happiest moments, as a way to keep sharing those moments with them."
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