A new AI company is drawing comparisons to Black Mirror after unveiling an app that lets users create interactive digital avatars of family members who have died.<\/p>\n
The company, 2Wai, went viral after founder Calum Worthy shared a video showing a pregnant woman speaking to an AI<\/a> recreation of her late mother through her phone. The clip then jumps ahead 10 months, with the AI \u201cgrandma\u201d reading a bedtime story to the baby.<\/p>\n Years later, the child, now a young boy, casually chats with the avatar on his walk home from school. The final scene shows him as an adult, telling the AI version of his grandmother that she\u2019s about to be a great-grandmother.<\/p>\n Article continues after ad<\/p>\n \u201cWith 2Wai, three minutes can last forever,\u201d the video concludes. Worthy added that the company is \u201cbuilding a living archive of humanity\u201d through its avatar-based social network.<\/p>\n Critics slam AI avatars of dead family members as \u201cdemonic\u201d<\/p>\n The concept immediately drew comparisons to Be Right Back, the hit 2013 episode of Black Mirror<\/a> where a grieving woman uses an AI model of her deceased boyfriend, played by Domhnall Gleeson, built from his online history. In that episode, the technology escalates from chatbots to full physical androids.<\/p>\n Article continues after ad<\/p>\n Article continues after ad<\/p>\n Social media users didn\u2019t hold back. Many called the video \u201cnightmare fuel,\u201d \u201cdemonic,\u201d and urged that the technology \u201cbe destroyed,\u201d sparking a fresh wave of debate over how far AI should go when dealing with the dead.<\/p>\n