Calum Worthy, best known for his role as Dez Wade in Disney‘s Austin & Ally, introduces a new feature on his controversial AI app, 2wai. According to 2wai’s new promotional video, users can record a video of their loved ones, create their avatar, and interact with them through the app. The video sparked controversy as users compared it to a Black Mirror episode.
Austin & Ally actor Calum Worthy unveils AI app 2wai, garners controversy
2wai co-founder Calum Worthy introduces users to a feature of the app through a new promotional video posted on X. In the video, captioned “What if the loved ones we’ve lost could be part of our future?” a pregnant woman is first seen talking to her mother on her smartphone. In the next scene, when her baby “Charlie” is 10 months old, she asks her mother to tell her son a bedtime story, again through the smartphone.
Soon, Charlie talks to his grandmother on what looks like a futuristic smartphone while he’s on his way home from school at the age of 10. Further, Calum Worthy appears as adult Charlie, speaking with his grandmother while preparing to welcome his own child. In the next scene, which opens with the on-screen caption “Before Charlie,” the promo reveals that Charlie’s mother previously recorded a video of her mother on the 2wai app to create her avatar, followed by the words, “With 2wai, three minutes can last forever,” appearing on the screen.
A majority of users in the comments section did not react well to this promotion of 2wai. Some compared it to Black Mirror’s first episode of Season 2, in which a grieving woman creates a digital clone of her deceased boyfriend using AI. Users replied to the video, calling the feature “diabolical” and “psychotic.” Worthy also wrote a follow-up to the video, mentioning, “At 2wai, we’re building a living archive of humanity, one story at a time. It all starts with the social network for avatars: the 2wai app.” One fan commented, “Horrific. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
Originally reported by Elton Fernandes on ComingSoon.
