London is getting a holographic, AI Elvis

Lots of big stars have played Elvis in recent years: first Oscar nominee , then Internet heartthrob , and now the name on everyone’s lips, . Yes, be you living or dead, nothing can stop someone from exhuming the corpse of your past self and puppeteering it for the entertainment of the masses. Welcome to the future, and .

AI Elvis is coming to London in a new stage show called from the U.K. company Layered Reality, which creates “immersive experiences” like and . promises a biographical and musical experience of the superstar, described on the thusly: The holographic concert performance “in AI” (in the words of Layered Reality CEO Andrew McGuinness) of course has the stamp of approval from Elvis Presley Enterprises, which says the upcoming show “will be the experience of the century for Elvis Presley fans.” Now, artificial intelligence has become a 21st century boogeyman, and for good reason: the technology has for art, creativity, and the value of human work.

But not every use of “artificial intelligence” is necessarily sinister. Peter Jackson used AI not to recreate the voice of John Lennon, but to isolate and enhance his vocals for the It’s unclear exactly how AI factors into , but it could be a similar case. Even then, holographic performances of long dead artists who have no say in how their image is used are controversial in themselves.

One of the most famous cases was a hologram of , despite the fact that he was on record in his lifetime as finding the concept “ .” Since then, holograms have resurrected artists like Tupac and Whitney Houston, to mixed reception. On the other hand, some living artists have embraced the possibilities of a digital avatar taking on performance duties for them: ABBA has a popular holographic show called , and KISS recently retired from touring and passed the baton to .

Frontman Gene Simmons said the tech is an opportunity to keep the band “forever young and forever iconic.” We can’t know if Elvis would have felt the same, but U.K. audiences can judge the relative tastefulness of when tickets go on sale later this year..