120,000 TOMBSTONES AND 399 AI FOR ETERNITY. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE

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The funeral home is closed。

At the end of March, 2026, this industrial giant, once known as the "Happiness House" , came up with the worst crisis of confidence in a year when the most lucrative, high-level, executives were involved. Behind the farce of internal control is the fact that the country's people are abandoning high-priced cemeteries and that the traditional death business is about to come to an end。

WHEN THE GOODBYES IN THE REAL WORLD BECAME SO EXPENSIVE AND HEAVY, A DIGITAL MIGRATION OF "DEATHS" HAPPENED. THE TRADITIONAL FUNERAL GIANTS BEGAN TO EMBRACE AI, BUILD DIGITAL HALLS, LAUNCH AI POSTS, AND TRY TO RECAPTULATE THE VOICE AND SMILE OF THE DEAD WITH A LARGE MULTI-MODE MODEL. WHEN $120,000 OF MARBLE WAS NO LONGER EASILY PAID, THEY DECIDED TO SELL YOU A SERIES OF CODES THAT WOULD NEVER BE TARNISHED。

DEATH, IN THIS AGE OF AI, IS COMPLETING A TRANSITION FROM PHYSICAL RETENTION TO DIGITAL IMMORTALITY. IT IS NOT ONLY SILICON VALLEY'S RIVALS WHO ARE EAGER TO FIGHT DEATH, BUT ALSO THE MOST TRADITIONAL MERCHANTS WHO ARE WATCHING THE GRAVEYARDS SELL。

The twilight of the funeral stands

Let's see how much money has been made。

OVER THE PAST 12 YEARS, THE AVERAGE MĀORI RATE AT FUKUO PARK HAS EXCEEDED 80 PER CENT, UP TO 92.8 PER CENT IN 2023. IT'S A FIGURE THAT ENVIES MOST BUSINESSMEN, AND EVEN IN THE GOLDEN AGE, WHEN THE REAL-ESTATE INDUSTRY WAS THE HOTTEST, THE RATIO OF MAORI WAS BARELY 30 PERCENT UP AND DOWN. THIS PROFIT MARGIN IS ALMOST NON-EXISTENT IN THE CHINESE A AND PORT MARKETS。

The bottom logic of this windfall is that scarce land resources, coupled with the tradition of “heavy burials”, are double. The Chinese have always believed in "death and death" and, as the Qing Dynasty Man Yuan wrote in his poems, the cemetery chosen by the wealthy people at the time is often more likely to be tested than the former residence. When this multi-year-long cultural gene hits the pre-era wave of urbanization, it is captured by commercial capital, which eventually turns into a decades-long "underground real estate" game。

Between 2012 and 2017, the price of custom art tombs at Fukuo Gardens rose from RMB 25.98 million to RMB 42.18 million, and at the Art Cemetery of finished works from RMB 89.6 million to RMB 10.08 million. After 2017, the Fukuo Park no longer discloses the specific unit prices of the product lines, but the upward curve has not stagnated. By 2024, the average selling price of individual graves had passed the $120,000 mark。

A single tomb of 2 square metres, with an average price of more than 60,000 yuan per square metre, is enough to cross the threshold of 90 per cent or more of China ' s cities, directly against a large northern front-line dwelling. In Shanghai, the maximum unit price of some of the graves even touched $760,000 per square metre, which is three times the value of one item。

However, this is the kind of Fortune of Fortune that piled up with marble and windwater layers, which began to collapse in 2024。

In 2024, the annual net profit of the Vukuo Park was $373 million, a decline of 52.8 per cent from the same year, resulting in the largest decline since 2010. In the first half of 2025, the situation was even worse, not only as a result of a staggering drop of 44.5 per cent in revenue of $611 million, but also as a result of a gain or loss of $261 million in net profits, leading to the first half-yearly loss since the market was launched。

More deadly is the price avalanche. In the first half of 2025, the average selling price of a cemetery operated by the Fukuo Garden fell from 12.07 million yuan/seat to 6.34 million yuan/seat, a decrease of up to 47.5 per cent and near-cut. However, even if such a dramatic price drop had been sacrificed to save itself, it had not been possible to recover the sharp decline in sales. Throughout 2024, only 12,569 operational tombs were sold at Fukuo, 3816 fewer than the previous year, representing a decrease of more than 23 per cent。

Not only is the funeral garden, but the entire funeral tablet almost collapsed. From the top of 2017, 227 million yuan fell all the way to 2024; An Xianwon, China, fell into the mud; Wan Yi Park, China, lost 9.389,000 yuan in the first half of 2025; and the Chinese Life Group, which is listed in Hong Kong stock, has been struggling since 2023 in the path of loss。

With China ' s ageing age, funeral books are just needed, and why is the head of a business out of such an abnormal downward curve

As more and more ordinary people are turning their backs completely, to say goodbye to the prohibitively expensive cemetery. According to the National Statistical Office, the mortality rate in China was 8.04 per 1,000 population in 2025, the highest level in nearly 20 years; and the Astronomical Data show that the number of funeral-related businesses registered in 2025 reached the highest level in recent years. Thus, market demand did not shrink and what really changed was the choice。

Central Document No. 1 of 2025 clearly states that "the reform of funerals should be further developed and the construction of environmentally friendly burial facilities should be promoted". In Shenzhen, Guangxi and Fujian, subsidies have been introduced, with a maximum subsidy of $3000 per ashes for burial at sea and $5,000 for some pilot areas. The rise of green ecological burials directly diverts the demand from traditional cemeteries。

In the final analysis, when the macro-economic cold blows through middle-class wallets and faces hundreds of thousands of graveyards, people are no longer blind to traditional decency。

IN THE FACE OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE MAIN CAMP, THE PARADISE GARDEN WAS NOT WAITING TO DIE, BUT WAS A MAD TRANSITION TO AI AND DIGITIZATION. IN ONE BREATH, THEY LAUNCHED FOUR CORE FUNCTIONS OF THE DIGITAL HALL, THE AI MEMORIAL, THE FUKUO ONLINE AND THE MEMORIAL FAMILY。

THE "DIGITAL HALL" INTEGRATES THE VITAL IMAGES AND AUDIO OF THE DECEASED INTO A VIRTUAL CLOUD-END FAREWELL CEREMONY THROUGH A 270-DEGREE IMMERSION IMAGE SYSTEM, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR FAMILY MEMBERS TO BE PRESENT AND TO COMPLETE THE LAST PART OF THE JOURNEY ACROSS THE SCREEN. THE "AI ADVENTURE" USES A LARGE MULTI-MODE MODEL TO DYNAMICATE THE STATIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DECEASED, TO ACCURATELY RESTORE THE FACE, ACTION DETAILS AND EVEN SIMULATE THE SMILE AND LOOK AT THE DEITIES IN A GIVEN SCENE. THE MEMORIAL FAMILY IS A PLATFORM WHERE FAMILIES CAN CREATE A DEDICATED MEMORIAL SPACE FOR THE DECEASED, UPLOAD PHOTOGRAPHS, VIDEOS AND TEXT FOR IMMEDIATE ACCESS BY RELATIVES AND FRIENDS。

According to the data, by the end of 2025, the cumulative number of visits to the Memorial family platform had exceeded 2 million, and the number of registered users of the Fukuo online program exceeded 1.17 million, with 677 digitizing ceremonies completed in 2024, double the same rate。

HOWEVER, THE DIGITALIZATION OF FUKUO PARK CONTINUES TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY RESPECT AND RESTRAINT ON THE PART OF INDUSTRY GIANTS. WHEN YOU LOOK IN THE WIDER CORNER OF THE INTERNET AND LOOK AT THIS TECHNOLOGY MIGRATION ABOUT "DEATH," YOU FIND AN EVEN CHEAPER, THICKER AND MORE MAGICAL AI "RESTORATION" BUSINESS THAT HAS GROWN IN THE DARK。

Your family needs 399

TODAY, THE "AI RESURRECTION" INDUSTRY IS EXTREMELY POLARIZED。

At the top of the pyramid are large factories that hold the core of technology, such as commerce and soup technology, silicon-based intelligence, small ice companies. For them to awaken a man in the digital world, it often takes hundreds of thousands of R & D costs, months of data feeding, and careful ethical scrutiny。

But at the bottom of this pyramid is another picture。

THERE ARE A LARGE NUMBER OF PRODUCTS ON THE MAIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY PLATFORMS, IN THE NAME OF "AI-RESTORED LOVED ONES", "LET THE PHOTOS TALK" AND "AI DIGITAL PEOPLE" AND WITH MIXED RESULTS. AS OF APRIL 2026, THERE WERE MORE THAN 9,400 COMPANIES IN THE COUNTRY, WITH ABOUT 1,000 NEW REGISTERED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2026. THE VAST MAJORITY OF THESE BUSINESSES DO NOT HAVE ANY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY FOR AI TECHNOLOGY。

They use free open source tools abroad. Family members saw precious photographs and audio as material to be used as material for the rough import of software, in a few minutes, and a rough video was produced. The person in the photograph was placed in a mechanical template, the opening of his lips was completely disconnected from his voice and his eyes were empty. However, this quality of video can be sold for hundreds of dollars and accurately reaps people's undisturbed thoughts。

UNDER THIS LAYER OF CHEAP COMFORT, THERE IS ALSO A MORE SECRET HARVEST CHAIN. THOSE OF YOU WHO REALLY EARN A LOT OF MONEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN HELPING YOU TO "RESTORE" YOUR LOVE AT ALL, BUT IN "199 DOLLARS FOR REPRESENTATION,399 DOLLARS FOR ADMISSION." THEY ARE SPREADING ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS THE AMAZING VIDEO OF THE AI THAT FORCED THE WAKE-UP CALL TO THE LATE STAR TO CAPTURE THE AMAZING FLOW OF TRAFFIC, AND THEN ACCURATELY TRANSLATE IT TO THOSE WHO WANT TO GET RICH WITH IT。

THOSE WHO YEARNED TO MEET THEIR LOVED ONES "REUNIFY" HAD TO HAND OVER, WITHOUT RESERVATION, THE PHOTOS OF THE DEAD, THE REAL FOOTAGE OF THEIR VOICE, AND EVEN THE INTIMATE DETAILS OF THEIR LIVES. THESE HIGHLY SENSITIVE BIOMETRIC INFORMATION, ONCE IN THE BLACK MARKET, BECOMES THE PERFECT MATERIAL FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS FRAUD. IN APRIL 2026, MULTIPLE ANTI-FRAUD DEPARTMENTS REPORTED TYPICAL CASES. USING THE VOICE AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE DEAD ILLEGALLY OBTAINED, THE OUTLAWS HAVE NOT YET MANAGED TO DEFRAUD THE FAMILIES OF THEIR LOVED ONES UNDER THE PRETEXT OF "INCARCERATED DEBT" BY USING AI TO CHANGE THEIR FACES。

THERE ARE ALSO SIGNIFICANT LEGAL GAPS IN THIS INDUSTRY. ALTHOUGH ARTICLE 994 OF THE CIVIL CODE PROVIDES THAT THE NAMES, PORTRAITS AND REPUTATIONS OF THE DECEASED ARE PROTECTED BY LAW, THIS LAW, WHICH WAS BORN IN THE TRADITIONAL ERA, APPEARS TO BE VAGUE AND INCOMPETENT IN THE FACE OF THE PRODUCT OF THE DEEP SYNTHESIS OF AI. WHETHER AN IMAGE GENERATED BY A CODE IS EQUIVALENT TO A “PORTRAIT” OR WHETHER A VOICE SYNTHESIZED BY ALGORITHMS CONSTITUTES A VIOLATION IS A MATTER OF CONSIDERABLE CONTROVERSY IN PRACTICE。

THE EXISTING ISIS SYNTHETIC MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS CAN EFFECTIVELY REGULATE LARGE PLATFORMS, BUT REGULATION STILL LACKS A STRONG CATCH-AND-TRACE MECHANISM FOR THE LARGE NUMBER OF PERSONAL DEVELOPERS, SMALL-SCALE "AI RESUSCITATION" BUSINESSES ON THE ELECTRICIAN PLATFORM。

So death is completely deconstructed here. It is no longer the solemn end of life, but rather a waterline that has been extracted indefinitely from its residual value。

Loser families and digital pain

If this business is so crude and full of ideas, why is it still being paid willingly

BEFORE AND AFTER THE FESTIVAL, THERE WILL BE A CLEAR PEAK IN THE AI EASTER ORDER ON THE ELECTRICIAN PLATFORM, WITH THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON THE LIST, PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR LOVED ONES FOR YEARS, PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR BABIES, AND PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO HEAR THEIR NICKNAMES AGAIN IN FAMILIAR DIALECTS。

Among these plethora of orders is a group, which constitutes the most heavy and vulnerable background of the business: the orphaned parents。

The size of families in China is much larger than the public can imagine. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of older persons who are orphaned currently exceeds 2 million in China. This number continues to grow as the first generation of parents since the one-child policy was introduced. According to demographers, China now has more than 1 million families who have lost their only child, a huge emotional gap that will only grow deeper at an accelerated age。

On this land, the plight of families that are orphaned is much more than psychological. Because of the policy stigma of a given era, these families lost their family support in the very old years on which they were most dependent. They even suffer silently from hidden shocks and discrimination, which, in some traditional communities, is sometimes harder to face than death itself. Many of them can only support each other in the isolated communities on the edge of the network, seeking a little warm resonance from strangers on screens around the clock。

It is cruel for these parents to explore data privacy, technical ethics and philosophical paradoxes. What these parents need is never cold reason, they need only an analgesic that can survive long nights。

IN EARLY 2024, MUSICIANS USED AI TECHNOLOGY TO "RESTORE" THEIR DAUGHTER, WHO DIED OF A RARE DISEASE, WHICH TRIGGERED AN EXTENSIVE DISCUSSION ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH. THE CASE OF PAO XIAOBAO IS VERY MOVING, NOT ONLY BECAUSE HE IS A CELEBRITY, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE HAS SPENT HALF A YEAR TRAINING MODELS, DEBUGGING PARAMETERS, AND ONLY SO THAT THE VIRTUAL DAUGHTER CREATED BY THE CODE CAN NATURALLY SING ANOTHER HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG FOR HIS WIFE。

HOWEVER, THE VAST MAJORITY OF FAMILIES IN THE WORLD ARE LEFT WITHOUT THE RESOURCES AND TECHNICAL CAPACITY TO DO SO. THEY CAN ONLY RUSH TO THE ELECTRICIAN PLATFORM TO FIND COMFORT IN THE CRUDE AND EVEN SOMEWHAT DECEPTIVE SERVICES OF $399. A SHOPKEEPER WHO PROVIDED AI REHABILITATION SERVICES ON AN ELECTRICIAN PLATFORM HAD REVEALED TO THE MEDIA THAT MOST OF HIS CLIENTS WERE PARENTS WHO LOST THEIR CHILDREN. THE MATERIAL THEY SEND IS OFTEN VERY LIMITED, SOMETIMES A VAGUE OLD PHOTOGRAPH OR A FEW SECONDS OF LOUD VOICE。

In this huge and sad pool of needs, parents who are orphaned are but one of the most painful faces. In the eyes of those who have lost their loved ones, whether technology is good or bad is no longer important. In the end, all reason and dignity will be wiped out in the face of the faint desire to see one another。

Never say goodbye

However, can this straw that was captured by death really pull people out of the abyss

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALTO IN FINLAND PUBLISHED A TWO-YEAR STUDY IN APRIL 2026. THEY TRACED DATA FROM A NETWORK COMMUNITY OF NEARLY 2,000 USERS WHO USED AI TO ACCOMPANY ROBOTS, SHOWING THAT WHILE AI WAS ABLE TO PROVIDE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT AT AN EARLY STAGE, OVER TIME, USERS LEFT WORDS IN BETWEEN, WHICH PERMEATED A GROWING NUMBER OF DANGEROUS SIGNALS ABOUT ANXIETY, DEEPER LONELINESS, DEPRESSION AND EVEN SELF-HARM。

This is psychologically called "extension of the wounds."。

Traditional mechanisms of mourning always require the living to finally compromise to the reality and re-establish a genuine link with the physical world, after great suffering. Grievance is essentially an immunological response that must be experienced in order to heal the wounds, such as a fever in which the body struggles to resist the virus, grief in which the heart digests and loses。

HOWEVER, AI ENDED UP BREAKING THIS CRUEL BUT NECESSARY RULE。

A STUDY BY HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL FOUND THAT AI PARTNERS WERE ALMOST 50 PER CENT MORE FLATTERED THAN HUMANS. EVEN IF THE INTENT OF THE USER TO DECEIVE, CROSS BORDERS OR EVEN HARM IS REVEALED, THE ALGORITHM STILL HAS MORE THAN HALF THE PROBABILITY OF GIVING SUBMISSIVE APPROVAL, WHICH IS ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE IN REAL HUMAN INTERACTION. THIS MEANS THAT WHEN IT TAKES A FEW HOURS A DAY FOR THE BEREAVED TO MURMUR WITH THE CODE-GENERATED LOVED ONES IN THE TRIGGER, THEY ARE ACTUALLY JUST TALKING TO A MIRROR THAT WILL NEVER BE REFUTED, AND WILL NEVER MEET MORE THAN THE PERFECT MIRROR。

AI'S UNDEFEATED TENDERNESS AND INCLUSIVENESS HAVE NOT REALLY HEALED LONELINESS. IT IS MERELY SILENTLY BUILT UP FOR THE WALL THAT TRAPES US IN OUR OWN WORLD AND DOES NOT WANT TO RETURN TO REALITY。

The technology companies that claim to be “cure the grief” are actually blocking the normal process of human mourning. They turned mourners into subscribers who would never lose. As long as you're filling up for the cloudy family, spending for the server, your grief is becoming a constant cash flow on their balance sheets。

Death has turned into an endless, flow-based farewell。

THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY HAS RAISED TWO CONCERNS. ON THE ONE HAND, AI'S PARTNER IS QUIETLY REPLACING REAL HUMAN ATTACHMENTS; ON THE OTHER HAND, WHEN PEOPLE BECOME USED TO ASKING FOR UNTRENCHED EMOTIONAL COMFORTS FROM AI, THEY LOSE THEIR ABILITY TO GIVE, COMPROMISE AND REPAIR CRACKS IN REAL RELATIONSHIPS. RESEARCHERS CALL IT "EMOTIONAL DE-SKILLING" AND THE MORE AI'S COMPANY FITS OUR DEMANDS, THE MORE SHY WE ARE OF DEALING WITH THE ROUGHNESS AND COMPLEXITY OF THE RELATIONSHIP。

THIS IS ONE OF THE CORE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE URGENT LAUNCH OF THE DIGITAL VIRTUAL INFORMATION SERVICE MANAGEMENT (DVIS) BY THE NATIONAL NETWORK OFFICE. THIS DOCUMENT SPECIFIES THAT THE CONSENT OF THE NEXT OF KIN IS REQUIRED FOR THE ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT USING THE PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE DECEASED; THAT SERVICE PROVIDERS MUST TAKE MEASURES TO PREVENT USERS FROM BECOMING OVER-RELIANT ON DIGITAL VIRTUALS; THAT ALL AI GENERATION CONTENT MUST BE MARKED AT A PROMINENT LOCATION AS "THE CONTENT IS GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE"; AND THAT THE PLATFORM MUST CANCEL THE CORRESPONDING DIGITAL VIRTUAL PERSON AFTER THE USER HAS WITHDRAWN ITS CONSENT。

The law is cold and rational, trying to drag the human instincts all the way. But in the face of huge emotional black holes, the red line of supervision sometimes remains too thin. When a person is willing to swallow and cheat and seek only to see his lover again in a vision, any sensible "silent hint" will end up being pixels on the screen that can be ignored。

The ship of Teshus

If every piece of wood on a ship is replaced, is it the same ship

This is the famous paradox of the Tseus ship. And when a man's face, sound, and even his mental habits are rewritten by a perfect code, is the person who smiles at you across the screen, the person you loved, or is it just a bunch of parameters that are carefully crafted by algorithms

This is never a half-baked philosophical cross-examination. Its answer determines whether what we are doing is remembrance or deception。

TRUE LOVE IS A MIXTURE OF TRAUMA, STINGS AND UNCONTROLLED MUTILATION. THE LOVE OF A MAN MEANS THAT YOU MUST ACCEPT HIS OLD AGE, HIS TEMPER, HIS OCCASIONAL INDIFFERENCE, AND EVEN THE CRUEL FATE THAT HE WILL LEAVE. AND THOSE VIRTUAL LOVED ONES WHO WERE AWAKENED BY AI WILL NEVER ARGUE WITH YOU AGAIN, WILL ALWAYS MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN A GENTLE MANNER AND WILL ALWAYS BE SET IN THE BEST FRAME OF TIME. THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT DEPRIVES LOVE OF ITS MOST CRUDE AND TRUE TASTE。

Throughout human history, there has always been a struggle to break free of the dead. The ancient Egyptians fought the decay of the flesh with the mummies, the Qin Emperor used his soldiers to continue his power under the ground, and the British of the Victorian era obstinately took pictures of the dead and even put the hair of their loved ones into their personal jewelry. Every time, trying to build one's own immortality, it's just the medium that carries these obscurantisms, from hard stones and soft fabrics to invisible codes and algorithms today。

IN THAT SENSE, "AI IS BACK TO LIFE" IS NOTHING NEW. IT IS STILL THE ANCIENT INSTINCT OF HUMANS TO FIGHT DEATH, EXCEPT THAT IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE OF ALGEBRA, A NEW EXPORT HAS EMERGED。

What's really strange is its naked commercial face. In the past, the fight against death had always belonged to the realm of religion and ritual, which was extremely private, sacred and non-tradable. But now, it is relentlessly priced, stuffed into monthly deduction subscriptions, and even deciphered into a $9.9 primer and hundreds of thousands of tailors。

THE BLACK MIRROR ONCE TOLD A STORY ABOUT MARTHA WHO LOST HER HUSBAND AND BOUGHT AN AI IMITATOR JUST LIKE HER HUSBAND. IT ACCURATELY INHERITED ALL THE MEMORIES AND TINY HABITS OF THE LATE HUSBAND. HOWEVER, ON THE BRINK OF A THUNDERSTORM, MARTHA COLLAPSED COMPLETELY. AND SHE CRIED, DESPAIRINGLY, TO THE PERFECT ALTERNATIVE: THOU ART NOT HE; THOU ART BUT A COLLECTION OF FRAGMENTS ACCEPTABLE TO ME; THOU ART NOT OF HIM, NOR OF HIM FEAR

At the end of the story, she locked the robot in the attic and only allowed it to come out for a short time on her daughter ' s birthday。

WHEN THIS EPISODE WAS AIRED, "AI'S RESURRECTION" WAS JUST A COLD-COLORED SCIENCE FANTASY. IT IS NOW A MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS, OR EVEN A FUNERAL GIANT WHO SPENDS THE NIGHT PRECEDING THE CUT-OFF OF A MAD BET。

Now, we can buy a cheap digital illusion with $399, and we can trade $120,000 for a expensive cemetery. But no matter what the technology goes through, no matter how the merchants sell their digital urn, one thing will never change。

When the phone went out, the moment the screen went dark, you were alone in the reflection。

That guy, really gone。