What is the story
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of popular social media platform Reddit and husband of tennis star Serena Williams, created an emotional video with her late mother Anke Ohanian. This video was created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Anke died in 2008 from a terminal brain tumor. Ohanian took X to share a heartwarming clip, recalling that he had no video of his mother.
How the video was made
To recreate his precious childhood moments, Ohanian Fed Midjourney, a popular AI tool, a young man who gave birth to an old photo of him hugging his mother and asked him to create a video from it. The result was surprisingly deeply moving for the Ohanians. “Damn, I wasn't prepared for how this would feel,” he said in an X's post, sharing the final results.
Post is now viral on x
The video generated by AI has earned over 8.5 million views with over 800 comments. While many were surprised by the technical feats, others raised concerns about privacy and the implications of such technologies. “That's not the way she hugged you. You were given the false memories,” the user wrote. Another said, “In a few months from now, I will talk to the dead people who have come back from a VR social media post.” The third is, “Beware of this: human memories are very adaptable.”
Ohanian responds to user-suggested concerns
I lost my mother almost 20 years ago. I'm sad enough, so the troll can be relieved. My family can't afford a video camera, and using Tech to generate animations for seconds from stills would either stabilize unrecorded videos using AI or…
– Alexis Ohanian (@Alexisohanian) June 23, 2025
The impact of his mother's illness on life
Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit in 2005, often talks about how his mother's illness affected his life and career. Anke was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor several months after Reddit's early growth. “Her diagnosis had a huge impact on my career and life,” he said in a 2022 Instagram post.
