China family creates AI clone to comfort elderly mum after only son dies in car accident

AdvertisementTrending in ChinaPeople & CultureTrending in ChinaChina family creates AI clone to comfort elderly mum after only son dies in car accidentTech team which ‘deceives people’s emotions’ make virtual copy of dead son who ‘talks’ to his mother via video, says he works in another city 2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenAlice Yanin ShanghaiPublished: 9:00am, 12 Apr 2026After a man in China was killed in a road accident last year, his family hired an artificial intelligence (AI) technology team to create a digital version of him to comfort his elderly mother. The AI creation is able to chat with his octogenarian mother online and help her live with the reality of her only child’s death. The incident was exposed by the AI team leader Zhang Zewei, who is based in eastern Jiangsu province, according to the media outlet Litchi News. AdvertisementThe family, who live in Shandong province, also in the eastern part of the country, is one of Zhang’s clients. The dead son “talks” to his elderly mother via regular video calls. Photo: ShutterstockAt the beginning of last year, the mother’s only child died in a traffic accident. AdvertisementAdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x