Ozzy Osbourne as an AI Hologram? ‘This Is Not a Conversation GPT With Father’s Face,’ Said the Son
Rocker Ozzy Osbourne was a hit stage performer with his band Black Sabbath, and later became a badass reality TV dad on MTV’s The Osbournes. A year after his death at age 75, he may be on the verge of creating a new kind of vision — like a hologram with AI.
His family partnered with a company called Hyperreal, which has created other holograms, including Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, to organize the Ozzy AI project.
His widow, Sharon, and son Jack have been exploring this possibility for ten years. Despite criticism from fans, the rocker’s family said on Friday’s episode of their podcast, The Osbournes, that they consider it a smart use of new technology.
“It’s like, ‘Why do you need a CD when you have a vinyl record?'” Sharon Osbourne said, addressing fan complaints. “You move with the times.”
Jack Osbourne called Ozzy’s avatar a “digital imprint,” not a hologram.
In the podcast, he read what he called five top critics of Ozzy’s AI project, including quotes from one person who called Ozzy’s project “ChatGPT in the face.”
Jack Osbourne has disputed those comments in particular, noting that Ozzy’s figure will not make up information, only quoting facts that have been given to him about Ozzy’s real life.
“This is not ChatGPT with a daddy’s face,” he said. “This is a closed AI, so it’s not connected to the internet. We’re building a database. And what I can’t stress enough is, this is only information that my Dad said or that was accurately written about him.”
The project will go hand in hand with Ozzy’s concern for his legacy, says Sharon Osbourne. “My husband would say to me over and over again, ‘After I’m gone, how long do you think I’ll be remembered?’
From ABBA to Whitney Houston
The Osbournes did not disclose details of how fans can see or interact with Ozzy’s digital print. But he wouldn’t be the first celebrity to return in digital form.
In 2020, Kanye West surprised his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, with a hologram of his late father, OJ Simpson’s lawyer, Robert Kardashian. (The photo called West “the smartest, most, most, most, most intelligent man in the entire world.”) The Kardashian hologram did not meet with viewers; instead, it offered words of encouragement aimed at Kim Kardashian, who was 22 when her father died in 2003.
A concert event featuring a hologram of the late Whitney Houston ran for two years in Europe and Las Vegas. The show featured a holographic version of Houston performing digitally updated versions of her past live performances, and included a five-piece live band, backup singers and choreographed dancers.
Digital celebrities are created in different ways. Many hologram-style works make images of dead stars. But the members of the beloved Swedish pop group ABBA they are still with us, and actively participate in the creation of their show. ABBA members wore motion capture suits while performing their hit songs, creating dance moves that are now performed by computer-generated versions intended to represent how the band members looked in 1979. A virtual band is playing in a concert in London called ABBA Voyage.
Hyperreal created their image of the late Stan Lee to be displayed in a giant box called the Proto Luma.
“Luma delivers a truly lifelike presence with realistic speakers, 4K video and a touchscreen so users can interact as if they were in the same room as the hologram,” says the Hyperreal site.
According to the LA Times, Lee’s interactive avatar answered questions from attendees at Los Angeles Comic Con using decades of the Marvel Comics leader’s original words, taken from his interviews and writings.
It is not clear if Ozzy Osbourne will appear at the Luma box and interact with fans in this same way.
A representative for Hyperreal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ozzy’s legacy
Some fans, as Jack and Sharon Osbourne have noted, remain skeptical. In the YouTube comments below the podcast video, where the two discuss and defend their business, fans posted comments similar to what Jack called out in the video.
“You don’t need an AI for Ozzy to remember him, his fans will NEVER forget…” another fan wrote.
Ozzy Osbourne lives in other ways. Jack Osbourne recently said that a biopic about his father is planned for 2028. He and his wife, Aree, named their new daughter, who was born on March 5, Ozzy Matilda Osbourne.
In May, Jack and Sharon Osbourne attended Licensing Expo 2026, where they publicly discussed Ozzy’s digital plans.
“Elvis died 50 years ago, and everybody knows Elvis,” Sharon said at the event, according to a License Global document. “I just want that, Ozzy.”
The hologram will be true to life, after a fashion.
“You can ask Ozzy anything, and he’ll answer it in his voice — and the answers will be what Ozzy would say,” he said on the show. “We will go all over the world. People can talk to him, and he will answer.”
Wild, but still.
