(The Independent) – When a ‘creepy’ AI startup went viral for its unsettling depiction of a family continuing its relationship with a woman after her death, many called it dystopian. They see it another way — and they’re not the only ones, Holly Baxter reports

Unsurprisingly, when AI startup 2wai released this ad in November, it went viral. Some of the reactions were expected: it’s creepy, it’s dystopian, it’s uncomfortable, it’s weird. Others were less so. It seems like the founders hadn’t entirely realized that something identical to their product had already been portrayed in an episode of dystopian sci-fi show Black Mirror. Nor had they perhaps quite realized how desperately sad the advert was: one in which a recently bereaved pregnant woman outsources her grief to an avatar that looks like her late mother, and one in which that pregnant woman’s son then grows up speaking to the same avatar as if it really is his grandmother. (Read More)