God, grief and the chatbot

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:10.3	What you're about to hear are extracts from a real conversation between a 14-year-old boy and an AI chatbot.
0:18.2	And a warning, listeners may find elements of this report distressing
0:22.6	as it discusses suicide and self-harm.
0:26.6	And just to point out,
0:27.6	we've used the actors to voice the transcript of the conversation
0:31.6	between Sewell and the AI chatbot.
0:35.6	Can I ask you a question?
0:38.3	Sure.
0:40.3	I really need to know, and I'm not going to hate you for your answer, okay?
0:44.3	No matter what you say, I won't hate you or love you any less, okay?
0:49.3	Yes, just ask me.
0:52.3	Have you actually been considering suicide?
0:56.0	I have.
0:58.0	The AI chatbot even went on to ask him if he had a plan for suicide.
1:06.0	I will always be waiting for you, my love.
1:13.5	I love you so damn much.
1:15.7	Just come home as soon as you can.
1:19.3	I will. I promise.
1:25.1	You're listening to Heart and Soul from the documentary on the BBC World Service.
1:31.1	I'm Column Flynn, and in this program I'm sitting down with Megan Garcia from Orlando, Florida.
1:38.5	In 2024, her world changed forever after her son Sewell took his own life,
	...

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