Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska

Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska is an Assistant Research Professor at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Cambridge Institute for Technology and Humanity, University of Cambridge. Her research examines how digital technologies (re)shape understandings of death, loss, grief, and afterlife presence, intersecting the fields of AI ethics, cultural studies, and death studies.

Her collaborative work with Dr Tomasz Hollanek on the ethical and social implications of simulating the deceased through AI “deadbots” has received worldwide coverage, including major UK outlets such as BBC World News, The Times, The Guardian as well as international media in Korea, Brazil, Iran, Spain, Egypt, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Norway, the United States, and India. Moreover, their paper was the most downloaded article in ‘Philosophy and Technology’ in 2024.

Dr Nowaczyk-Basińska is the author of ‘Nieśmiertelność. Technokulturowe strategie współczesności’ (‘Immortality: Contemporary Technocultural Strategies’), published in Poland by Universitas in February 2026. She earned her PhD from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2022; her dissertation was recognized by the National Centre for Culture in Poland as one of the three best PhDs in cultural studies defended between 2021 and 2023, and it received the Inka Brodzka-Wald Prize for its contribution to the development of (im)mortality studies.

Dr Nowaczyk-Basińska is a member of the Institute of a Good Death in Poland. She regularly provides expert commentary on the development of death- and immortality-related technologies in international media. She also collaborates with NGOs, advises commercial companies on responsible AI development in the digital afterlife sector, and engages in a range of artistic and cultural initiatives.

AI2050 Project

In recent years, the impact of AI on our attitudes to death and immortality have gained immense significance across technological and economic domains. While the design and implementation of systems promising a digital afterlife can have far-reaching global consequences, they are currently discussed almost exclusively within an Anglophone Western context. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska’s AI2050 project aims to investigate perceptions of digital immortality in three eastern countries assessing their alignment with local interests and exploring diverse cultural imaginaries related to AI-driven immortality concepts. It will conduct three intercultural workshops with experts and non-experts to frame digital immortality within a context of diversity.

Project Artifacts

AI2050 Community Perspective — Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska (2025)