Controversial app lets people talk to AI avatars of their dead relatives

An app promising to render people’s loved ones into interactive 3D ‘chatbots’ – allowing for catch-ups ‘beyond the grave’ – has met with a sharply divided reaction.

Co-founded by former Disney TV star Calum Worthy, 2wai lets users feed footage of another person into an AI which generates an avatar with their appearance and personality.

A new advert shows a pregnant woman doing this with her mother, then using the app after her mum has died and the baby is born to get the avatar to tell a ‘bedtime story you used to tell us’ to the child.

The child is then seen using the app himself as he grows older, appearing at the age of 30 to show an ultrasound of his unborn child to the avatar of his dead grandmother, who congratulates him.

Mr Worthy claims his company is ‘building a living archive of humanity, one story at a time’.

The advert was met with a torrent of criticism on social media.

‘Demonic, dishonest, and dehumanizing,’ one commenter wrote, while another jibed: ‘Nothing says compassion like turning someone’s grief into a business opportunity.’

Alex Holland, pointing out that users who want to cancel their subscription down the line would be faced with a choice of to pay up or ‘never talk to your dead parents again’, told Mr Worthy: ‘You are a psychopath. Get help.’

The company’s ad appears to claim a lifelike avatar can be created with only a brief sample of recorded interactions.

‘With 2wai, three minutes can last forever,’ its slogan reads.

The company has not shared any information about how this process works.

It relased an early-access version earlier this year claiming to let users chat with a ‘digital twin’ of themselves.

Mr Worthy’s app also offers a selection of avatars purportedly based on fictional characters, historical figures and celebrities including himself.

The Canadian actor rose to prominence in Disney’s 2011 teen comedy series Austin & Ally and recently seems to be more focused on his tech career.

The latest offering bears similarities to the plot of the Black Mirror episode ‘Be Right Back’, in which a grieving woman uses an app, and later an android, instilled with the AI-powered ‘personality’ of her deceased boyfriend.

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