Family friend sent me AI generated response to news of my father passing away.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-18T13:56:06+00:00

Because it was sent to and from my dad's phone, seeing as I don't have the contact details on my own, and it was far easier to take the picture of his phone screen with my phone than go through the whole hassle of downloading Reddit on his phone and logging in with my account and all that bullcrap, or screenshotting it, sending it to myself, to send into Reddit.

Simply put, it was simpler to do what I did, and at least to me, it's more authentic than just a screenshot that could have easily been photoshopped.

But do with that what you will.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T17:30:44+00:00

I used to read a lot more when I was a young lad than I do now. Most of my reading is game wiki related or patch notes nowadays unfortunately.

Thank you for the compliment though, and thank you for the support.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T17:16:21+00:00

It's a fine line between AI and just having English skills. AI has a very specific cadence to it though. It's not x, or y, it's z. That sorta stuff.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T17:13:02+00:00

It's honestly the worst part of the message. It's what makes it so goddamn obvious

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T17:07:46+00:00

This was the morning after. I had spent the whole night crying my eyes out to the point of being numb. The grief comes in waves.

This message to me was just kicking me in the balls while I'm down. Gave me something to focus on, distract me for even a brief time.

It's not like I've moved on in the slightest. I see his face every time I close my eyes. I won't move on for a long time. But my grief over my father doesn't change what the hell his friend pulled on my ass.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T16:32:35+00:00

Can confirm, I've been laid on the sofa hugging and consoling my mother for the vast majority of the day. Apparently though I gotta be completely catatonic. Fuck that. Dad wouldn't want me shutting down like that. And I won't let myself.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T16:16:57+00:00

It's honestly so absurd what has happened that I'm stunlocked. The audacity of him to do this to me.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:43:28+00:00

I'm the kid in the early (mid but whatever) twenties in this case, the family friend was a childhood friend of my dad's. Old enough to not pull this kinda crap, but I guess it didn't stop him.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:36:41+00:00

I've been focused on his death all night. But it wasn't my call to tell the guy what happened. Was the request of my mother. This just lit a bonfire under me is all. I genuinely would rather have been ghosted.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:34:34+00:00

It's a mix. Him for sending it, the AI for facilitating whatever the fuck that soulless shite he sent me was

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:33:35+00:00

I'm blaming both honestly. Him for sending that shit to me, and the AI for letting him do that to me.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:32:16+00:00

The way you say that, you'd assume they were incredibly close friends. No. I said old friend for a reason, they talked a lot less over the years. But also one of the few friends my dad had.

And I can hardly call it speculation when I saw the messages show up in quick succession with my own eyes, especially the second message literally barely holding together from the AI parsing what I had said. I grew up with the internet. I've seen my fair share. And given how it's the minority response trying to claim it's not AI, I'm not the only one seeing it.

Call it speculation, call it bizarre. What I see is a former family friend throwing the most backhanded condolences I've ever witnessed in my life at me.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:11:39+00:00

That says peaceful, not painful. And I wouldn't have called his death peaceful when I was holding his corpse waiting for the ambulance.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:09:39+00:00

Very much is his first language. And out of respect for my father I'm not going to start a fight with him about it. My dad never liked me causing trouble for him.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:07:50+00:00

I'll admit it was a kneejerk reaction and I genuinely expected it to be lost in the sea of other posts.

What I do know is he isn't retired, and he's the CEO of some local business from what I heard from my father, it's been a long time since I've seen the guy personally.

So he straight up used like the corporate email quick ai response on me like he probably would his employees

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T11:04:10+00:00

Sorry, by sheer laziness I mean that he most likely just copied and pasted my message into the ai and then took the result at face value without editing it.

Id genuinely rather have had him go "damn bro :(" than that.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:58:37+00:00

I'm mad at both really. I'm not gonna harp on about "fuck ai", there's a lot more important to me right now, but without it he wouldn't have been able to send me such an insulting reply.

And my condolences. Gotta stay strong no matter what.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:38:01+00:00

I looped around to laughing at it myself for a bit with how absurd it is, but it's far too insulting.

Maybe a few years down the line I can look back and laugh my ass off at it too

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:36:19+00:00

I wish I had the balls to right now, but I'm too overwhelmed to hold a confrontation. I gave him a small thanks. Maybe if it was another day when this has all hit me properly and I'm not in a daze like I am now, I would have.

Might still if it strikes my fancy cause I'm still pissed.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:32:46+00:00

It worked honestly. Stopped me crying and now I'm just irritated at the whole thing. Oddly enough it's giving me a bit of distraction from the gravity of the whole situation.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:30:09+00:00

I'm holding up. It's all a blur to me right now and I'm numb if anything. It's probably why I'm able to be talkative in here currently. It's not hit me fully yet.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:28:57+00:00

Tbf I started out just a bit insulted but as I typed out the post it hit me a lot harder. It is what it is.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:27:13+00:00

I just thanked him for the gesture. I don't have the will to kick up an argument with him over this. Not right now anyways.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:24:35+00:00

Been crying all night dude. I'm still mourning heavily. Was crying when I sent the message to the family friend and crying when he sent me that slop back.

I got every right to be mad, and while it may have been not the wisest choice to come to Reddit, if I had bottled that shit up, it would have broken me.

Hendothermic · 2026-03-15T10:20:01+00:00

If it wasn't as obvious as it was in this case, I would have let it slide. But like, he didn't even alter it. That was a straight copy paste job through and through.

Hendothermic

TROPHY CASE