A video ad for 2wai, an app that turns a few minutes of video into a talking AI avatar, is trending on X again. In the ad, a pregnant woman talks to an AI version of her late mother, and the avatar stays in the family for decades. X's trending summary groups the reaction under "AI App Recreates Deceased Loved Ones, Draws Strong Backlash."
This is not new news. It is a resurfaced 2025 clip. 2wai co-founder Calum Worthy originally posted the ad on X on November 11, 2025, at 8:30 AM PT. Exactly one year later, on November 11, 2026, at 9:34 AM PT, the account @JoshuaBarzon reposted the same video with the line "An AI app that lets you comunicate with dead relatives." Both videos run 106 seconds, and frames we compared from the two files match. The repost does not name 2wai or Worthy. We found no new 2wai announcement on its site or its X account.
Here is what the ad shows, what people said about it this time, and what 2wai says about its product now.
What the 2wai ad shows
Forbes reported on November 14, 2025, that the ad had passed 22 million views. It describes the plot: an expectant mother talks with an AI avatar of her dead mother, and the avatar then appears as the son is born, grows up and has children. At the end, the ad shows how the woman made the avatar: Forbes says the app apparently generated it after she filmed her mother speaking and moving for three minutes. The closing line, as Newsweek reported, was "With 2wai, three minutes can last forever."
Worthy's 2025 post carried the caption "What if the loved ones we've lost could be part of our future?" As of 2:07 AM PT on November 12, 2026, X showed 42,069,440 views on that original post.
At the time, 2wai pushed back on one reading of the ad. Alex Finden, whom Newsweek named as 2wai's marketing lead, told the magazine: "On the 2wai app, we only allow users to create avatars of themselves in order to protect their ownership of their name, image, and likeness." Worthy later discussed the backlash on CNN.
Calls to ban it
Less than an hour after the repost went up, @samweinberg0, whose bio lists board chair at @pathtoprog, quoted the clip with four words: "Ban this shit immediately". As of 2:07 AM PT on November 12, 2026, that quote post had 63,677 likes and 488,831 views. The repost it quoted had 612,451 views.
About 12 hours later, @samweinberg0 added a follow-up in the same thread: "Since this blew up, unfortunately I don’t think there is a way to constitutionally ban AI necromancy outright, so the best mechanism would probably be a really rigorous likeness use consent agreement, likeness rights existing in perpetuity after death, and some other wonky stuff."
Others went further. @Strittposter, quoting a different clip, about a South Korean documentary in which a mother meets a VR version of her dead daughter, wrote: "Everyone involved with AI that specifically designed to mimic your dead loved ones should be put on trial". @LyleHender56329, replying to a follow-up post in which @JoshuaBarzon asked "Would you do this?", wrote: "Not only would I not do it. I think it should be banned."
"Digital necromancy" and grief
@CarrieCnh12, whose bio lists film critic and film journalist work, quoted the clip: "I rebuke it. This is digital necromancy and it's evil." They added that they had seen the idea in two dramas, one Chinese and one Korean, and still found it disturbing.
Some replies came from people who have lost family. @heidieatsalot replied to the repost that they had lost a mother, father and sister in the last six years and found the app horrifying, then wrote: "I would never want this." As of 2:07 AM PT on November 12, 2026, that reply had 1,046 likes.
@NWNM23, quoting the ban post, wrote: "I remember being excited about AI for almost this very thing and grew to realize I’d rather miss actual memories of my dad than creating false ones."
@dchapdelaine, who opened a reply to the "Would you do this?" post with "Hospice Chaplain here.", wrote: "Grief process is so important to good health inside and out." The reply ends: "This isn’t even a band aid." @reesey333, in the same thread, wrote: "Seems almost like a tech ouija board"
The Black Mirror comparison
The ad keeps getting compared to "Be Right Back," a 2013 episode of Black Mirror. @UnredactedAIHQ replied to the repost: "Black Mirror did this exact story in 2013." The reply continues: "Grief usually ends with a goodbye, and this thing never stops answering."
Others were not sure the ad was real. @miffythegamer quoted it: "I had to google this because I genuinely thought it was a parody." The next line: "I was wrong."
The other side: let people choose
Some posts pushed back on the ban calls. @Lesdeuxneurones, a French account whose bio reads "L’actu. Simplement.", noted that the 2wai ad had drawn 22 million views a year ago and that the calls to ban it were back. Then: "Personne n'est obligé de parler à l'avatar de sa mère. Mais des inconnus qui décident comment tu as le droit de faire ton deuil, ça c'est vraiment Black Mirror." In English (our translation): nobody is forced to talk to their mother's avatar, but strangers deciding how you are allowed to grieve is the real Black Mirror.
@GanSakura15127, writing in Chinese, described the clip and the ban calls, then wrote: "我第一反应也是后背发毛。可要换成最亲的人，又不敢说一定不要。" In English (our translation): their first reaction was a chill down the spine too, but if it were the person closest to them, they would not dare say they would definitely refuse.
What 2wai says now
2wai has changed since the ad. Its home page now presents a web app to "Talk to an AI avatar, or make one," and says "An image is all you need to start." Its pricing page lists a Creator plan at $25 a month and a Studio plan at $100 a month. A review by MemoAgent, a company that sells a memorial alternative, wrote on October 29, 2026: "Grief is one use among many; the current site does not market memorials as such."
2wai's ethics page says of an avatar made in its studio: "It is not the person. It does not claim to be alive, and it will not pretend to have knowledge, feelings, or experiences it cannot have." On consent, it says users attest they have the right to use the likeness and voice they upload, and adds: "We cannot verify every submission, but we moderate for misuse and will remove any representation used to harass, deceive, or harm." It also says: "We don't pretend to have resolved every question."
So the clip that is trending today is a year-old ad for a product that now looks different. The questions people raised, about grief, consent and who controls a dead person's likeness, are the same ones they raised in 2025.
For more on AI avatars, see our guide on how to make an AI avatar from a photo and our look at Meta Muse voice and avatars. For rules aimed at AI companions, see our report on the EU Digital Fairness Act draft.
Sources
- X trending story: AI App Recreates Deceased Loved Ones, Draws Strong Backlash
- @CalumWorthy on X: original 2wai ad, Nov 11, 2025
- @CalumWorthy on X: CNN appearance, Nov 21, 2025
- @JoshuaBarzon on X: repost of the ad, Nov 11, 2026
- @JoshuaBarzon on X: "Would you do this?" follow-up
- Forbes: AI App That Creates Avatars Of Dead Relatives Draws Backlash (Nov 14, 2025)
- Newsweek: Video App That Allows Dead To Live on Compared To Dystopian Show
- 2wai home page
- 2wai pricing
- 2wai ethics page
- MemoAgent: 2wai App Review (Oct 29, 2026)
- @samweinberg0 on X: ban post
- @samweinberg0 on X: follow-up
- @Strittposter on X
- @LyleHender56329 on X
- @CarrieCnh12 on X
- @heidieatsalot on X
- @NWNM23 on X
- @dchapdelaine on X
- @reesey333 on X
- @UnredactedAIHQ on X
- @miffythegamer on X
- @Lesdeuxneurones on X
- @GanSakura15127 on X
