Texting my Dead Father
James Vlahos created a chatbot to keep his father's memory alive. He demonstrated how it works to Jo Fidgen.
Do you ever dream of being able to have a conversation with someone you love but who's passed away? Californian journalist, James Vlahos was devastated when he heard his father, John, had very little time left to live - and he wanted to find a way of keeping their relationship going. He came up with a rather extraordinary idea, to create a chatbot of him. He brought his creation along to a studio in San Francisco, to demonstrate how it works to Jo Fidgen.
Hugo Bautista is a master clockmaker from Mexico City. Despite being offered prestigious jobs in Switzerland, he chooses to ply his trade on a market in the notorious suburb of Tepito where his mother had a stall before him.
Stuart Barnes is a shepherd and animal behaviourist. He tours the UK with a dancing sheep roadshow. He was inspired to spread a little happiness by an incident in Rwanda on a trip to visit mountain gorillas.
(Picture: James Vlahos with his father. Credit: James Vlahos.)
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- Tue 1 Aug 201711:06GMTBBC World Service except News Internet
- Tue 1 Aug 201715:06GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Tue 1 Aug 201717:06GMTBBC World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Wed 2 Aug 201703:06GMTBBC World Service Online, Australasia & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Wed 2 Aug 201705:06GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean & South Asia only
- Wed 2 Aug 201706:06GMTBBC World Service East Asia
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