Sharon Osbourne has spoken about the reaction to her AI plans during a recent episode of The Osbournes Podcast.
Back in May, around 10 months after the death of the Black Sabbath legend, Sharon and her son Jack announced a collaboration with Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to develop an AI-driven version of Ozzy.
At Licensing Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, the pair said the “digital Ozzy” would be able to answer “anything” using his voice, with plans to take the experience to audiences worldwide. They also claimed the responses would be “scarily accurate”.
“I’ve seen the tests that they’ve done of Ozzy and you can see every pore on his face, his beard’s coming through, it’s that detailed,” Sharon said at the time.
Not everyone welcomed the announcement, however, with some fans criticising it as a “cash grab”.
Speaking on the podcast, Sharon pushed back against those claims.
“I don’t need your money.
“For someone to turn around to me and say that I’m doing a cash grab, no. You don’t know my husband. I know my husband. And my husband would say to be over and over: ‘After I go, how long do you think I’ll be remembered?’”
Sharon went on to explain that she would answer him in a blunt, emotional way.
“I just don’t know, because I’ll probably be going with you.”
The family also said the idea wasn’t new, explaining they’ve been looking at the concept for around a decade and see it as part of “moving with the times”.
Jack argued that if they didn’t create it themselves, someone else would.
“It’s either we do it, or someone else is going to do it,” Jack added. “And the most important thing for me is that when we create this digital imprint of dad, we create it, we own it, we control it.”
Sharon said the project would be something that stays within the family and could eventually be handed down.
She later added that she ‘doesn’t need to justify anything to any f****r out there.’
Ozzy had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, and died after suffering a heart attack at home last July.
Since his death, Sharon has also shared what she says were his final words to her. In an interview with Piers Morgan on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the former X Factor judge said that around 20 minutes before he died, he asked her to kiss him and hold him close.
“If only I’d have held him tighter. And he went downstairs, worked out for 20 minutes and passed away,” she emotionally revealed.