BEIJING: Achieving immortality in cyberspace is a common trope in science fiction. At the end of the series Devs on streaming platform Hulu, multiple characters are reborn inside a digital recreation of the universe, and are left wondering if they’re real or just code. Their dilemma is playing out right now in online spaces, as AI replicas of workers have begun popping up.
Last month, prominent influencer Zhang Xuefeng, known for giving university admissions advice, died at just 41 years old. As his followers mourn the loss, Zhang has “come back to life” in the form of an AI. Zhang Xuefeng.skill inherited the influencer’s accessible speaking style and values after being trained on his years of livestreams, media interviews, and books. Its presence online has sparked a hurricane of passionate discussion.
Wang Ziyue, a Stanford University doctor focusing on AI, uploaded a video criticizing the bot, saying, “It’s like extracting humanity from the human body and creating something that resembles a human but is not truly human, evoking an uncomfortable sense of horror.” In late March, colleague.skill was published on GitHub, promising to convert work data from former colleagues to generate digital versions capable of replacing them in their jobs. In the description, the developer used black humor to satirize how large models have already made people lose their jobs with an ironic quote: “You AI guys are traitors to the codebase—you’ve already killed frontend, now you’re coming for backend, QA, ops, infosec, chip design, and eventually yourselves and all of humanity”.
But fear not, they have a solution to a common workplace problem: “Turn cold farewells into warm skills. Welcome to cyber immortality!”
After colleague.skill went viral, it sparked discussions on occupational anxiety, technological ethics, privacy, and personality rights.
Meanwhile, companies are already beginning to use it.
Jia, who works at a major internet company in Beijing and asked to remain anonymous, said large tech companies have high staff turnover. Valuable employees take their experience and leave a productivity gap while new hires get up to speed. “However, if your chat logs, emails, and work documents could be used to train an AI version of you without your knowledge after you leave, this is not just a data breach — it is a disrespect for individual labor,” she said.
Online responses have been varied. On social media platform Xiaohongshu, a netizen posted greetings from their digital former colleague: “I’m the digital avatar of the former employee [name blurred out]. You may ask me questions, and I will answer based on documents from my time working here.”
One commenter said: “This is spine-chilling. In the past, when someone left a job, their desk was cleared and their work account deactivated. Now, even after your physical self has moved on to a new company, your ‘digital ghost’ remains trapped in your former workplace, working for the boss for free.”
In a separate post, someone made an unverified claim that their company had asked them to train an AI with their skills, only to fire them later.
As the ethical discussion continues online, some experts are focusing on legality, cautioning that software like colleague.skill carries substantial risk. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
