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 something she says she had never imagined: for more than a year, Sewell had been spending hours talking to an artificial-intelligence chatbot which he believed was a real person. 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 this is not only a story about technology. It is also a story about faith.

Rather than losing her belief, Megan says her tragedy intensified it. She 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.

“I felt like Our Lady was grieving for me as a mother who lost a child,” she says. “And I was grieving for her as a mother who lost a child. We were grieving together.”

For Heart and Soul, we hear Megan’s story in her own words — a deeply personal journey through grief, belief, and the new moral questions raised by artificial intelligence: what happens when machines become companions, and where do faith, responsibility and protection meet in a digital world?

Presenter: Colm Flynn
Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional or an organisation that offers help. Details of support available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide — that’s befrienders dot org.