God, grief and the chatbot

When Megan Garcia travelled to Rome, she carried with her a mother’s grief. At the Vatican she met the Pope and asked him to pray for her son Sewell, who died last year at the age of 14. In the months after his death, Megan discovered Sewell had been spending hours talking to an artificial-intelligence chatbot, which he believed was a real person for more than a year. He formed a deep emotional attachment to it, confiding in it about his life and feelings. Megan believes that relationship played a part in her son’s death. She is now pursuing legal action against the company behind the chatbot, arguing that safeguards for young users were inadequate. The company disputes the claims. But rather than losing her belief, Megan turned to prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary, finding comfort in the idea of a mother who also knew the pain of losing a child. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.