When Sarah Baldeo travels for work, she has found a new way to stay present for her 15-year-old son: an AI clone built from her own words, values, and family rules.
Baldeo, a cognitive neuroscientist, created a custom chatbot designed to sound and respond like her. She uploaded screenshots of text conversations between herself and her son, along with documents explaining her values and the rules that guide their family. The result gives her son another way to interact with a version of his mother when she is away.
A chatbot with a mother’s values
The AI clone is not just a collection of facts about Baldeo. She programmed it with material that shows how she communicates with her son and what matters to her as a parent. That includes their text messages, which provide examples of their relationship, and documents that explain the standards she uses when making decisions.
Her son tested the chatbot with a question many teenagers might recognize. He asked how to convince his mother to let him hang out at a coffee shop in Chicago. Instead of giving him a simple argument to use, the AI replied with a message tied to Baldeo’s outlook: “Your mom very much values new experiences.”
That exchange shows the goal behind the experiment. The chatbot is meant to offer advice and interaction while keeping Baldeo’s approach at the center, even when she cannot answer in person. It gives her son a way to ask a question, but the answer still reflects the values and family rules she supplied.
The setup also shows what makes an AI clone different from a standard assistant. A general chatbot can answer questions, but Baldeo shaped hers with personal conversations and family documents. Its responses draw from material connected to one parent and one child, rather than from a broad set of instructions meant for everyone.
Parents are testing AI in everyday family life
Baldeo’s chatbot is part of a larger group of AI tools aimed at family life. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has recommended that parents connect their family calendars to ChatGPT and use AI to create podcasts for children. He also said, “I couldn’t imagine ‘figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,’” and that he relies on AI to help him be a father.
Other products take different approaches. A couple is interested in using Omi, an AI wearable that listens in on daily life and can alert parents if their child might be upset. The device moves AI from a chat window into a tool that follows everyday activity and identifies a possible emotional problem.
Meta is working on an AI app called StoryKit, which generates and reads personalized bedtime stories for children. Peanut, a social network for moms, has also added an AI tool that searches its community for answers and shares them with parents.
These examples cover several kinds of help: a personal chatbot for advice, a calendar and podcast assistant, a wearable that listens, a story generator, and a tool that searches conversations among parents. Each one places AI in a different part of family life, from planning and entertainment to questions about a child’s feelings.
From convenience to help with uncertainty
Michelle Battersby, President of Peanut, described the appeal in terms that go beyond saving time. “We don’t see moms using AI to make parenting more efficient, We see them coming to AI to help them navigate uncertainty.”
Baldeo’s experiment fits that idea. Her son’s coffee shop question was not a request for a schedule or a simple piece of information. He wanted help with a conversation and a decision involving his mother’s values. The chatbot gave him an answer shaped around those values, which made the exchange personal in a way a generic response would not be.
At the same time, the different tools show how much family information can become part of an AI system. Baldeo used screenshots of private conversations and documents about family rules. Omi is designed to listen to daily life, while other tools connect with calendars or search discussions shared by parents.
For Baldeo, the purpose is clear: remain connected with her teenage son during work travel. Her AI clone does not replace her presence, but it gives him another channel for advice and interaction while she is away. That small distinction matters, because the chatbot’s usefulness depends on the personal material she chose to provide and the relationship it was built to reflect.
AI is now being shaped into a family calendar helper, a storyteller, a community search tool, a wearable listener, and even a digital version of a parent. Baldeo’s chatbot offers the most personal example of the group: an attempt to make distance feel smaller by turning one mother’s words and values into an ongoing conversation.
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