Kanye West Fail! Experts Find Robert Kardashian Hologram 'Disrespectful'
Kanye West surprised Kim Kardashian with a hologram of her late father as a gift for her birthday.
Kanye West's Birthday Gift for Kim
Kanye shocked his fans when he offered a rare, sweet birthday message to mark the birthday of his wife, Kim. He even graced his Instagram account with a throwback photo taken during his 2013 marriage proposal to the reality star.
Although it was more than enough for Kim, she received another gift from Kanye. For her 40th birthday, she got to see her late father, Robert Kardashian, through a hologram.
"For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is so lifelike! We watched it over and over, filled with emotion," Kim captioned her Twitter post.
Robert was renowned for being OJ Simpson's lawyer during his murder trial in the 1990s. The trial lasted for almost nine months until the court found him "not guilty" in October 1995.
The late lawyer then split from Kris Jenner in 1991 before succumbing due to esophageal cancer in 2003.
What's more surprising--and probably spine-chilling--was when the hologram began speaking. It said, "You married the most, most, most, most, most genius man in the whole world, Kanye West."
While fans saw the hologram as something thoughtful, experts believe that the move is actually a direct disrespect to the late Kardashian patriarch.
What Experts Said Of Robert Kardashian Hologram
BBC compiled the experts' thoughts on the disturbing gift from Kanye.
According to digital ethicist Per Axbom, creating a hologram for the late lawyer only caused massive concerns for Robert's rights after his death.
Axbom added that there is no way it could be informed consent, even when the person allowed the use of hologram.
Since the hologram also spoke for Robert--although he never met Kanye as Kim's husband--it became disrespectful to his belief.
"More than a hologram, they become a puppet. Dangerously, by extension they can become a puppet that can not be discerned from their real self. It will matter who is given control of that puppet," he went on.
Meanwhile, the chief creative officer of Studio BLUP, Dines, referred to it as something manipulative. By programming the hologram to say something good about the rapper is already a form of manipulation.
For Dines, if that line never existed, then most people would see that the hologram is sweet, pleasant and genuine.
However, since Kanye maximized what a hologram can do, the expert found it scary instead.
"Rules don't need to be made for that. But this will be made a trend, because everything Kim touches becomes a trend. There will have to be laws in place now," he warned.
Meanwhile, David Ripert--the founder Poplar Studio which deals with augmented reality--suggested that education about holograms and its uses should also be imposed.
Kim Kardashian Insensitive
After the KKW Beauty mogul shared the gift online, some fans called her out for being insensitive during the pandemic.
Currently, some families are not able to see their relatives due to restrictions. But seeing how she celebrated for an expensive gift truly hit people's nerves.
One netizen said, "Kim Kardashian getting a hologram of her dead dad while millions of Americans didn't even get to tell their parents goodbye or go to their funerals thanks to COVID is too on the nose."
The number of COVID-19 cases is still high, and it will surely affect more families emotionally and mentally in the next coming days and months.