'I can't believe it': Grandson surprises grandmother with AI video of her late husband

USA Today

2 days ago

An Argentinian grandmother was moved to tears this month when her grandson surprised her with an AI-generated video of her husband who died over 30 years ago.
The woman, Sati, grinned as a once-still image of her husband, Jose, moved about, smiling back at her.
Her grandson, Martin Garchtrom, made the video and shared it with his followers on TikTok in early July.
'Is that Pepe?' Sati, 100, asked in the video, referring to him using a Spanish nickname, Storyful shared.
At one point, Sati cradled her face in her hands, overjoyed at what her grandson had created, before leaning back in for another look at her husband.
Watch the heartwarming moment
Grandmother is still 'in love like the first day' despite husband passing away over three decades ago
Sati's husband Jose passed away more than 30 years ago, according to Storyful.
She talks to her grandson often, and one common topic of discussion is the man she married all those years ago, Garchtrom said.
'My grandmother Sati always talks about my grandfather Jose,' Garchtrom said. 'She is in love like the first day.'
Her grandson is a UX designer and musician, and he loves showing his grandmother new technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), he told Storyful.
Pairing technology with her love for her late husband was a given. He remembered a photo of Jose that sits on a small table in her living room. He then explained to her how they could take the image and make something new.
'First, I told her, 'I'm going to take a picture of him with my cell phone,'' he explained to his grandmother. 'Then I said, 'I'm going to transfer this photo to the computer and we're going to make it come to life.''
As he played the video for her on July 7, he asked her if she understood what was happening.
'Oh my God,' she said in the video. 'I love you, Jose. We loved each other. I can't believe it.'
Bringing deceased loved ones back to life using AI
TikTok users aren't the only ones using AI to revisit coveted moments with loved ones. Alexis Ohanian, entrepreneur and co-founder of Reddit, shared a video of himself as a child with his late mother on X in June. In the AI-generated video, he and his mother hug and she looks at him before embracing again and rocking side-to-side.
'I wasn't ready for how this would feel,' he wrote. 'We didn't have a camcorder, so there's no video of me with my mom. 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's post spurred discussion, with some X users warning him against using AI to recreate moments like this, arguing that AI gives users false memories.
Ohanian replied to X users adding that his mom died almost 20 years ago, so he has 'grieved sufficiently.'
He added that his family couldn't afford a camcorder back then. In his eyes, using AI to make an animated video is similar to using AI to stabilize or fill in the gaps of old or poorly-recorded videos.
'It's not a replacement for a loved one nor should it be,' he wrote.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at [e-mail].