Fame & Fallout•3 MIN READ

Sharon Osbourne Built an AI Version of Ozzy. Critics Called It a Cash Grab. She Had a Two-Word Response.

Susan Blake

Updated Jun 29, 2026

Caption: Sharon Osbourne at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards in 2012. Credit: Eva Rinaldi, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Sharon Osbourne built an AI version of her late husband Ozzy that can perform live and respond to fans. When critics called it a cash grab, she answered on her own podcast - and didn’t hold back.

What You Should Know

On a recent episode of The Osbournes podcast, Sharon and her son Jack addressed criticism that the AI Ozzy project amounts to commercial exploitation of his legacy. The technology was announced in May through a partnership with Hyperreal and Proto Hologram, and will be able to ‘perform live, respond to audiences, and exist within interactive environments,’ according to the companies, available through Proto Luma units in the UK. A company representative described it as ‘a living performance, built exclusively from authenticated source material: curated, consented, and controlled by the people closest to Ozzy.’

Jack Osbourne pushed back directly on cash-grab criticism, saying the AI module is ‘closed’ and not internet-connected: ‘You think this is going to go sentient and the next thing you know Ozzy is going to launch the nukes?’ Sharon was more direct: ‘I’m not asking you to come. I don’t want your f-cking money. I don’t need your f-cking money. I’m doing very well.’

The Public Image Problem

The project arrives less than a year after Ozzy Osbourne’s death in July 2025, following decades as Black Sabbath’s frontman and the family’s MTV reality show that turned Sharon, Jack, and daughter Kelly into stars in their own right. Sharon framed the AI project as continuing a conversation Ozzy himself raised before he died: ‘My husband would say to me over and over, “After I go, how long do you think I will be remembered?”’

The family’s final tribute to Ozzy was his last performance with Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England, just weeks before his death, a benefit concert for children’s hospital and Parkinson’s charities that featured Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Jack Black among others.

The Receipts

Rolling Stone confirmed the podcast comments directly through audio of the episode. The Hyperreal and Proto Hologram partnership announcement and accompanying quotes are publicly documented from the May announcement.

What Happens Next

The AI Ozzy avatar’s first public interactive deployments through Proto Luma units in the UK have not yet been scheduled as of this writing. How fans respond to the technology in practice - rather than in concept - remains untested.

References: Rolling Stone