Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian responded to criticism of the emotional posts that shared videos generated by AI recreating embraces from his late mother.
A short clip made from precious old photos, which overwhelmed the Ohanians, but elicited repulsion from certain sections of the internet.
“Damn, I wasn't prepared to see how this would feel,” Ohanian said in X's post. “This is how she hugged me. I re-watched it 50 times,” he went viral with over 27 million views in his first post.
The throwback photo shows Ohanian's mother embracing the scenery with the mountains in the background. Describing this process, he added, “I dropped one of our favorite photos from the Mid Journey as the 'AI Video Starting Frame' and WOW.”
See the post here:
However, some users were not very happy with the video and accused the Ohanians of creating fake memories. Critics have warned that such content could distort real memories, called AI recreation “fakes”, “lie” and “thingless” AI recreation.
“It's a fake, but when you see it, it becomes real for your memory. I'm not a fan of it,” the user said. Another is, “That's not the way she hugged you. You were given the false memories.”
The Ohanian, who was stolen by the backlash, approached the criticism with a mild but pointy reaction. “I lost my mother almost 20 years ago. The trolls are sad enough so it's safe,” he said in a later post on X.
He defended the use of technology, saying, “My family couldn't afford a video camera, and still generating animation using Tech is equivalent to stabilizing inadequately recorded videos using AI, or filling the gaps in what has deteriorated (if we had).
Alexis Ohanian's dignified response has been praised by several users, and I am grateful that many have shared such personal moments and have stood his place in an increasingly polarised discussion of memory, sadness and the use of AI.
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