On Sunday, Alexis Ohanian posted a photo and a brief video on X, which received 20.4 million views in under 36 hours. The image was a treasured one of Ohanian’s deceased mother, depicting her embracing a young Ohanian in a bright mountain meadow. This child would eventually co-found Reddit, marry Serena Williams, and become a father. While the image itself was pure, the video attracted considerable attention.

Utilizing the new Midjourney AI video generator, Ohanian animated the image, reviving his mother. The video depicts the woman embracing and rocking the young Ohanian.

Many reactions were favorable, with users conveying how touched they were by the video and Ohanian’s sentiment. In his post, Ohanian expressed, “Damn, I wasn’t prepared for how this would feel. We didn’t own a camcorder, so there’s no footage of me with my mom… This is how she hugged me. I’ve watched it 50 times.” In a subsequent post, he elaborated, “I lost my mom nearly 20 years ago. Trolls can rest assured I’ve grieved enough. My family couldn’t afford a camcorder, and using technology to generate a few seconds of animation from a still is akin to using AI to stabilize a poorly recorded video — or to patch up a degraded video — of her (if we had it). It’s not a substitute for a loved one nor should it ever be.”

While many perceived the video as a beautiful representation of love, others condemned the use of AI, likening it to “black tar heroin” and a “false memory.”

Personally, I hold mixed feelings about this AI usage. It may be soothing and healing, and I hesitate to critique Ohanian if he found it impactful. Unlike debates around the Studio Ghibli images from ChatGPT, I don’t perceive harm in this posting.

Yet, something about this makes me pause, akin to standing at the edge of a cliff. Generative AI can now produce realistic images, videos, and speech rapidly, and I don’t believe the world is prepared for the implications, which remain uncertain.