Digital Dignity Summit 2025: Proceedings and Declarations
Digital Dignity Institute
Abstract
The full proceedings of the Digital Dignity Summit Cancun 2025, including panel summaries, working group outputs, the Cancun Declaration on Digital Remains, and recommendations for international governance of posthumous AI systems.
Summit Overview
The Digital Dignity Summit Cancun 2025 convened scholars, policymakers, technologists, civil society advocates, and community representatives from twenty-three countries to examine the governance of posthumous AI systems — AI technologies that interact with, represent, or make decisions about deceased individuals. The Summit proceeded from the recognition that existing governance frameworks are wholly inadequate for the distinctive challenges posed by posthumous AI, and that the rapid pace of technological development makes urgent action necessary.
Panel Summaries
The Summit comprised eight plenary panels and fourteen working groups addressing the full range of posthumous AI governance challenges: consent and authorisation frameworks; platform accountability and enforcement; the rights of surviving family members; cultural and religious dimensions of digital remains; the intersection of posthumous AI with data protection law; intellectual property dimensions of AI-generated replicas; criminal law responses to posthumous AI abuse; and international coordination mechanisms.
The Cancun Declaration on Digital Remains
The Summit adopted the Cancun Declaration on Digital Remains, a fifteen-point declaration calling on states, platform operators, and international bodies to establish comprehensive governance frameworks for posthumous AI. The Declaration calls for: recognition of posthumous digital dignity as a protected interest; mandatory pre-mortem consent instruments; default restrictions on commercial posthumous AI use; platform obligations to verify consent; rights of surviving family members to contest posthumous AI deployments; and an international coordination mechanism for posthumous AI governance.
Working Group Outputs and Recommendations
Working group outputs address specific governance challenges in greater depth than the plenary panels. Key outputs include: a model statute for posthumous AI consent instruments; a framework for platform liability in posthumous AI cases; a set of minimum standards for cultural and religious sensitivity in posthumous AI governance; and a proposed mandate for an international body with responsibility for posthumous AI coordination.
Key Findings
- 01
Existing governance frameworks are wholly inadequate for posthumous AI: they were not designed for a world in which the dead can be made to speak.
- 02
The Cancun Declaration on Digital Remains represents the most comprehensive international consensus yet on posthumous AI governance.
- 03
Default restrictions on commercial posthumous AI use, absent explicit pre-mortem authorisation, are the minimum adequate response.
- 04
Cultural and religious dimensions of posthumous AI governance require dedicated attention: one-size-fits-all frameworks will fail.
- 05
An international coordination mechanism is urgently needed: posthumous AI is inherently cross-border and current jurisdictional frameworks cannot address it.
Methodology
Summit proceedings compiled under modified Chatham House rules; working group outputs represent consensus positions except where dissent is noted; panel summaries prepared by rapporteurs and reviewed by participants.