An ethically sound idea for deceased characters without consent issues, could be for pets.

Before your pet dies, have your pet properly scanned and recorded. The barks, the purring and various mannerisms.

You could upload a bunch of carefully framed photos and recorded sounds, the service processes those to produce a highly realistic virtual pet you can interact with in various modes. Full Tamagotchi to fully automatic.

Possibly unhealthy? Pets die, we should let go? Hard to say.