Dolly Parton On The Possibility Of Becoming An AI Hologram When She Dies
Source: Southern Living, Meghan Overdeep
Photo: JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC
“I don’t want to leave my soul here on this earth.”
Dolly Parton has no interest in an AI version of herself, thank you very much.
In a recent interview with The Independent, the country legend expressed her discomfort with the possibility of hologram concerts after her death. Why? Her soul, of course.
“I think I’ve left a great body of work behind,” Parton said. “I have to decide how much of that high-tech stuff I want to be involved [with] because I don’t want to leave my soul here on this earth.”
“I think with some of this stuff I’ll be grounded here forever…” she added. “I’ll be around, we’ll find ways to keep me here.”
Parton then went on to joke that “everything” about her, including “any intelligence” was artificial anyway.
The question of a hologram version of Parton isn’t all that crazy. She wouldn’t be the first musician to take advantage of AI to perform posthumously. As Deadline points out, ABBA launched a residency concert in London last year featuring 3D versions of members of the Swedish group as they were in 1979. Whitney Houston also appeared as a hologram in An Evening with Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour.
Parton, on the other hand, might take a bit of convincing. The 77 year old is famously reluctant when it comes to technology. To this day, her preferred method of getting in touch is a fax machine.
“That’s the only way I know to get ahold of her,” Reba McEntire said of her communicating with longtime friend in a 2022 interview with Apple Music’s Southern Accents Radio. “I even asked Kenny Rogers one time. I said, ‘Do you have Dolly’s cell number?’ He said, ‘No.’ So you fax her.”