Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian shared a video of his late mom hugging him. The video quickly gathered tens and millions of views. The video was not a time capsule, but it was created based on a single still image.
Ohanian created the video using the new AI video creation feature from Midjourney. To him, the video is a time machine that takes him back to six seconds in the past. Many viewers agreed with this interpretation, but there were also dissenting voices who warned that the clip was a fake and could affect Ohanian’s true memory of his mother.
No matter how people felt about this video, it was clear that many people felt something visceral when they saw the fake of a speculative event. Ohanian wrote: “This is how I was hugged.” And that sentence alone encapsulates the heartbreak and hope for the digital age. The desire to remember more clearly, hold on tighter to a loved one who is gone, use machines for intimacy, not profit or surveillance. Human.
AI tricks are everywhere. You can create an image of your cat in an Olympic diver costume, your family picnic as a cartoon, or even your child as their future career. These are mostly light-hearted fads, but they also highlight larger issues around AI. Ohanian, however, does not consider this a disposable video. Ohanian has made it clear that he will cherish this clip. He’s not alone in using AI to preserve his mother’s memories or to create false memories when he feels that the real ones are slipping away. But he has certainly brought this idea more attention.
There is a strange vulnerability when you invite a machine guess your memories. It’s a bit like asking a stranger if they can finish your dream. AI doesn’t even know your mother. It doesn’t even know how much she hugged or laughed. It only knows pixels. Sometimes pixels are all that we have.
You know how it feels to wish that you had more photos and videos of someone you lost, especially before smartphones tracked our every move. Ohanian said that his family could not afford a camera. He has no video of him with his mother. It’s the photo of a hug on a meadow. With the help of a few suggestions and a sophisticated AI-model, that hug is back.
I lost my mother almost 20 years ago. Trolls, you can rest assured that I’ve grieved enough. My family couldn’t have afforded a camcorder, and using tech to create a few seconds of animation out of a still is equivalent to using AI to stabilize or fill in the gaps in a poorly recorded video. June 23, 2025
The discomfort expressed by many is not solely due to Alexis Ohanian’s video, or the reasons he chose make and share it. I think the concern is about what this option could mean in worst-case scenarios. This moment is easy to interpret as the beginning of an ominous and dark trend.
If it makes Ohanian feel more connected to his mother, I think that’s fine. It’s not as if the image was a fabrication; it simply externalized his memory of a hug. It’s a tactile version of saving the last voicemail your parents left you or keeping their favorite scented candles around because they make you smile. Ohanian doesn’t pretend that the video is anything other than a memory aid. AI can be used to create false memories, but this is not the case.
AI video remembers
After Ohanian’s post went viral people began sharing their AI-animated photos of family. These are only fragments at the moment, silent and brief. No matter how long ago the grief occurred, I would never want to judge someone’s grief or how they handled it. A fair assessment must be personal.
I did the same as Ohanian. I found a picture of my mother who died 13 years ago. She was with me when we celebrated Hanukkah in the early 1990s. Hailuo, the Olympian cat, was used to create a video from the grainy photo of my childhood. I knew my mother would be thrilled to have participated, as she was always looking for a way to help me in any aspect of my life. I had no hesitations on this front.
I think the video is fine. The video doesn’t quite match how she and I appear in the photo. I think that the AI is more to blame than the quality of the picture. The video allowed me to imagine the moment as if I were younger, and this was a very interesting sensation. Whether it was because of the quick and dirty prompt or my own circumstances, it didn’t feel as though it evoked an even deeper connection with my late mother. I’m sure many others will feel the same if they try it.
It’s not that it’s not useful to others, just because it felt hollow to me. I don’t think Ohanian wants to replace his mother with an AI film maker. I think he is trying to feel closer to his mother.
Of Course, AI doesn’t just amplify our love for those who are dead. It can also amplify our fear, longing, and our ability to deceive. This technology is powerful when it becomes personal. For now, this is just a way to bring back a fond memory from his mother, and AI models can be used for much worse purposes.
- Midjourney has just released its first AI video and Sora, Veo 3 and other competitors should be concerned
- Forget about virtual pets – this new Google Veo 3 competitor is the next AI video craze. It’s cats doing Olympic diving.
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Eric Hal Schwartz has been a freelance writer at TechRadar for more than 15 years. He has covered the intersection of technology and the world. He was the head writer of Voicebot.ai for five years and he was at the forefront of reporting on large language models and generative AI. Since then, he has become an expert in the products of generative AI, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. He also knows Google Gemini and all other synthetic media tools. His experience spans print, digital and broadcast media as well as live events. He’s now continuing to tell stories that people want to hear and need to know about the rapidly changing AI space and the impact it has on their lives. Eric is based out of New York City.
