I Built an AI Version of My Mom After She Died — Here’s What It Revealed

My mother died when I was 11. For decades, all that remained were memories, photo albums, letters, and grainy home videos.

Recently, AI made something possible that would have sounded unthinkable even a few years ago: using those artifacts to create a digital replica of my mom — and to have a conversation with her. Not a script. Not a recording. A live interaction that responds, reflects, and feels unsettlingly present.

This clip tells the story of how that came to be, and why it stopped the room cold when it was shown live. It’s awe-inspiring, emotional, and a little uncomfortable — and that’s the point. AI isn’t just changing productivity or creativity; it’s going to fundamentally alter human relationships, memory, grief, and connection.

These kinds of live demonstrations are what define my workshops. Rather than talking abstractly about AI’s impact, we experience it together — in ways that make the implications impossible to ignore.