2wai, created by Disney Channel actor Calum Worthy, launched as a deeply controversial AI platform that lets users generate interactive avatars of deceased family members. These “HoloAvatars” can speak, respond, and interact across simulated life events. Official links: 2wai.ai | 2wai on X.

• Avatar creation: Uses minutes of recordings to build AI versions of deceased relatives, allowing users to “talk” with them.
• Viral promo: A widely shared video showed an AI grandmother interacting with her grandson from infancy to adulthood — triggering thousands of critical comments.
• Launch model: Beta is free on the App Store; subscription tiers and Android support are coming soon.
• Backlash: Critics called the idea “demonic,” “objectively evil,” and exploitative — arguing it interferes with healthy grieving and uses identities without consent.

Why it matters: AI emotional attachment was already intense with regular chatbots — but bringing back the dead pushes society into uncharted territory. From consent issues to the ethics of grief commercialization, 2wai highlights a looming frontier where AI, memory, and mourning collide in ways that feel eerily close to Black Mirror.