AI Grandma Canceled After 7-Day Free Trial

SPOKANE, WA — Citing a lack of meaningful connection and overwhelming technical glitches, local grandson Mick Tillerman navigated layers of digital red tape to cancel his subscription to GrannyGPT, an online service that provides an AI-powered version of loved ones, mere minutes before his 7-day free trial expired.

“At first it felt like talking to my real grandma,” said Tillerman of the digital avatar of his paternal grandmother, Granny T. “It looked like her, and sounded like her, and even knew some of her old recipes.”

Within days, however, Tillerman says that some details seemed off. “I was pretty sure that she doesn’t put mayonnaise in her sweet potato pie, and her story about the time Uncle Ben tore down the neighbor’s bird feeders in a drunken rage missed a lot of important details,” he said. “But mostly it was just racist in all the wrong ways. I could tell it wasn’t her.”

Tillerman said the experience wasn’t all bad, but that the cost of $19.99 a month was hard to justify if he had to pay it himself. “Maybe if it was free,” he said. “Or I could put it on Granny T’s Visa. She probably wouldn’t care. I’ll ask next time I see her.”