In recent years, with the rise of big data and artificial intelligence technologies, such as ChatGPT, its generative AI technology that goes beyond deep synthesis has led to frequent infringement cases of personality rights such as reputation rights, portrait rights, personal privacy, and the personal interests of the deceased in practice. How to reduce the negative effects of technological progress while enjoying technological dividends is an urgent problem that needs to be solved on the road to building a socialist rule of law country in China. Looking back at the past, China has always attached great importance to the protection of human dignity. Since 1982, the Chinese Constitution has made clear declarative provisions on the personal dignity of Chinese citizens in the form of special provisions, demonstrating the governing philosophy of the Party and the state centered on the people. Throughout the evolution of China’s system for protecting the personal interests of the deceased, it has gone through stages of precedent, judicial interpretation, and written regulations. Since the 1980s, the famous cases of Chen Xiuqin v. Wei Xilin and "Lotus Woman" have pioneered the judicial practice of protecting the personal interests of the deceased in China. During this period, the focus of China’s judicial organs also included the protection of the personal interests of the deceased. They successively issued several answers and approvals related to the personal interests of the deceased. These official documents gathered into a rich set of rules for the protection of the personal interests of the deceased. After these answers and approvals, China’s judicial organs also specifically stipulated the relevant protection rules for the personal interests of the deceased in the form of judicial interpretations. Later, since the promulgation and implementation of the Civil Code in 2021, Article 994 of the Civil Code specifically provides provisions for the protection of the personal interests of the deceased, marking that China’s protection of the personal interests of the deceased has entered the stage of written regulations. However, whether examining the specific issue of the protection period for the personal interests of the deceased from the perspective of current legal provisions or academic theory, there is still significant uncertainty regarding whether the protection period for the personal interests of the deceased should be distinguished and determined separately, as well as how to set the protection period. In fact, property interests and spiritual interests are indispensable components of the deceased’s personal interests, and there are significant differences between them in terms of protection period and protection objects. This article suggests that the protection period of property interests in the personal interests of the deceased should be determined based on the survival period of the deceased’s heirs, while the protection period of spiritual interests in the personal interests of the deceased should be determined based on the survival period of the deceased’s close relatives. In certain specific circumstances, the personal interests of the deceased are closely related to the public interest, and even have become a part of the public interest. At this time, the personal interests of the deceased should be protected in the long term. However, it should be noted that when the personal interests of the deceased involve social public interests, they are not necessarily permanently protected. In specific cases, it is necessary to comprehensively consider various factors such as the identity of the deceased and the infringement methods of the perpetrator to determine the specific protection period for the personal interests of the deceased.