Reddit Co-Founder's AI-Generated Video of Late Mother Sparks Ethical Debate

Reddit Founder Prompts Ethical Debate After Sharing Photo of His Mom Brought to Life with AI

The founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, took to X this weekend to share an AI-generated video of himself and his mom from when he was a young boy -- provoking debate and criticism. In the emotional post, Ohanian explains that he lost his mom at a young age and has no video of the two of them together. "Damn, I wasn't ready for how this would feel," he writes. Ohanian made the video with the help of Midjourney which, as PetaPixel reported last week, has just rolled out its first AI video generator model allowing users to animate a still image. "I dropped one of my favorite photos of us in Midjourney as 'starting frame for an AI video' and wow... This is how she hugged me. I've rewatched it 50 times," Ohanian says poignantly. X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has a cynical user base and people were quick to criticize AI technology for its ability to create false memories. "They're outsourcing their memories to machines," writes Matt Boileau. "Replace your real memories with fake memories for only 19.99 a month," adds Bobby. Some compared it to the Mirror of Erised from the first Harry Potter film, The Sorcerer's Stone, which Harry gets lost in looking at an image of his two deceased parents standing next to him. "Be careful with this. Human memories are very malleable, and you'll remember what the AI shows you whether it's true or not, "Elizabeth Greene writes beneath Ohanian's post. The technology employed by Midjourney is nothing new; in fact, the company is actually quite a way behind its competitors. Last year, Alien: Romulus brought back beloved actor Ian Holm so he could appear one more time in the long-running movie franchise and some services allow grieving family members to create AI versions of their loved lost ones. It is easy to see why people are uneasy around such technology. Consultant at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, Alessandra Lemma, told Al Jazeera that prolonged use of such services could stop people from properly processing grief and leave them in a state of "limbo." "The biggest concern that I have as a clinician is that mourning is actually very important. It's an important part of development that we are able to acknowledge the missing of another person," she said.

A Reddit cofounder posted an AI video of his late mom, and it's dividing the internet

On Sunday, Alexis Ohanian posted a picture and short video on X, and less than 36 hours later, the post amassed 20.4 million views. The picture was wholesome -- one of Ohanian's favorite pictures of his late mother. In the photo, his mom embraces a young Ohanian in a warm hug as they sit in a sunny mountain meadow. That smiling boy would grow up to be one of the co-founders of Reddit, the husband to Serena Williams, and a parent himself. The picture is innocent enough on its own. However, it's the video that caught the internet's attention. Using the new Midjourney AI video generator, Ohanian created a short video clip that animates the photo, bringing his mother to life in a new way. The pair beams as the woman hugs the young Ohanian and rocks him back and forth. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Many of the responses were positive, with users sharing how touched they were by the video and Ohanian's message. In his post, the tech entrepreneur wrote, "Damn, I wasn't ready for how this would feel. We didn't have a camcorder, so there's no video of me with my mom... This is how she hugged me. I've rewatched it 50 times." And in a follow-up post, he clarified, "I lost my mom almost 20 years ago. Trolls can rest assured I've grieved sufficiently. My family couldn't afford a camcorder and using tech to generate few seconds of animation from a still is the equivalent of using AI to stabilize a poorly recorded video -- or fill in the gaps of a deteriorated video -- of her (if we'd had it). It's not a replacement for a loved one nor should it be." While many people found the video to be a beautiful expression of a son's love for his mother, others couldn't see past the AI. Some users reacted with revulsion and horror, likening AI videos like this to "black tar heroin" and a "false memory." Personally, I feel quite ambivalent about this application of AI. I can see how it would be immensely comforting, therapeutic, even. And I'm wary of injecting negativity where it's not needed. If Ohanian found the video moving on a spiritual or emotional level, then what right do I have to criticize or question him? (I reached out to Ohanian to ask if he has anything further to share, and I'll update this story if I receive a response.) Unlike controversies like the Studio Ghibli images from ChatGPT, I don't see how this post harms anyone. Even so, something about this gives me pause. It's the same feeling I get when standing on the edge of a cliff. Generative artificial intelligence can now quickly make lifelike images, video, and speech, and I don't think the world is ready for the consequences. I don't think we even know what the consequences will be. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This touching viral AI video of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's mom hugging him is also sparking a fiery debate

Can AI help you remember the past, or just implant false memories? Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian posted a short video of his late mother hugging him, which soon garnered tens of millions of views. Not because the video was a time capsule of a long-ago moment, but because it created it based on what had only been a still image. Ohanian used the new AI video generation feature from Midjourney to create the video based on a single photo. To him, it's a time machine to six seconds from decades ago. Millions of other viewers shared that interpretation of the clip, but a significant number of dissenting voices warned that it was a fake memory that could mess with Ohanian's real remembrance of his mother. Regardless of how people felt about the video, it seemed clear that most people felt something visceral about the facsimile of a speculative moment. Ohanian wrote, "This is how she hugged me." And in that sentence alone is the entire heartbreak and hope of the digital age: the ache to remember more clearly, to hold tighter to someone who's gone, to use machines not for profit or surveillance, but for something intimate. Human. There's no shortage of AI tricks floating around right now. You can generate an image of your cat as an Olympic diver, your family picnic as an animated cartoon, or your child in their future profession. Mostly, these are lightly entertaining fads that also illustrate larger issues surrounding AI. But this is not a disposable video to Ohanian. This is a clip he has made clear he will treasure. And whether he's simply leveraging AI to keep his mother's memory alive or constructing false memories because he feels the real ones slipping away, he's not the first and has undoubtedly brought the idea more attention than ever. There's a strange vulnerability in inviting a machine to guess at your memories. It feels a little like asking a stranger to finish your dream. AI doesn't know your mom. It doesn't know how she laughed or how tightly she hugged you. It just knows pixels. But sometimes pixels are all we've got. If you've lost someone, especially before smartphones and camcorders tracked our every moment, you know what it's like to wish you had more videos and photos of that person. Ohanian said his family couldn't afford a camcorder. He doesn't have any video of himself with his mom. That photo of a hug in the meadow is it. But with the help of a few prompts and a sophisticated AI model, that hug lives again. I don't think the discomfort many expressed is solely about Alexis Ohanian's video or why he chose to make and share it. I think it's about what having this option might mean in the worst scenarios. It's easy to see this moment as the beginning of a dark and gloomy trend. I think if it helps Ohanian feel closer to his mother, that's just fine. It's not like the image was itself a fiction; it just externalized his own memory of a hug. It's like a more tactile version of saving your parents' last voicemail to you, or keeping around their favorite scented candle because it makes you smile. Ohanian isn't pretending the video is anything but a memory aid. Using AI to make false memories may or may not become a real problem, but that's not the case here. AI video remembers After Ohanian's post went viral, people began sharing their own AI-animated family photos. For now, these are just fragments, silent and brief. But judging people's grief and how they handle it, no matter how long it's been, is not something I would ever want to do as long as it's not hurting anyone. A fair assessment has to be personal. So I did the same thing as Ohanian. I found a photo I've always liked of my mother, who passed away 13 years ago, celebrating Hanukkah with me in the early 1990s. I used Hailuo (of Olympian cat fame) to make a video based on the grainy image from my childhood. For what it's worth, I know my mother would have been thrilled to participate, as she was always looking for ways to assist in any facet of my life, so I didn't have any qualms on that front. The video is okay. It's not quite matching how she and I look in the photo, though I think the quality of the image is at fault there as much as the vagaries of AI. I could put that aside and imagine the moment from my own younger perspective, thanks to the video, and that was an interesting sensation. But, whether it's because of the quick-and-dirty prompt or just my own circumstances, I didn't feel like it evoked a deeper connection to my late mother. I suspect there will be plenty who feel the same way if they make the attempt. Just because it was a little hollow to me doesn't mean it can't benefit others without fraying their understanding of their own past. I don't believe Ohanian is trying to replace his mother's memory with an AI filmmaker. I think he's relatably trying to feel a little closer to her. Of course, our love of those who have passed away isn't the only thing AI amplifies. It can also amplify our fear, our longing, our capacity to deceive ourselves. This technology is powerful, especially when it gets personal. But for now, it's just a way for Ohanian to surface a fond memory of a hug from his mom, and there are much worse uses for AI models. You might also like