Son uses AI to recreate late father's voice for special Christmas present

For Christmas this year, a St. Louis man decided to use artificial intelligence to recreate his late father's voice for a unique present for his mother.

Phillip Willett, the content creator behind The Content Guy media company, shared a TikTok video featuring the creation Thursday and it has quickly gone viral, with over 3 million views and counting.

Willett told "Good Morning America" that his wife, Kassandra Willett, was the first person to give him the idea to use AI, something he had been using in his professional work for clients.

"At first, I was like, I don't really want to wade into that. I thought it was kind of weird," Willett recalled of his initial hesitation.

But the suggestion stuck with him and the 27-year-old decided to search online to see if other people had done anything similar.

Willett said online, he found "a whole community" of people who had asked the same questions he was mulling over and had also successfully tried using AI voice software to re-create the voices of people they cared about.

Soon after, Willett changed his mind and earlier this month, he said he sat down early one morning to give it a try using ElevenLabs' text-to-speech software.

"The actual first words that I put into the program was 'Hi, honey.' And I can't tell you how many times I've heard [my late father] say that in my life, which was why it was the first thing I put in," Willett said.

"When the program said it in his voice … I got chills all over my body," he continued. "That's when I was like, I'm doing this no matter what."

Willett said throughout the creation process, it was important to him to get his late father's voice just right, or else the gift idea simply wouldn't work.

Willett called his late dad, John Willett, who died in 2022 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his "hero" and credits his parents' strong relationship for the tight-knit and close relationship he has with his family and siblings today.

"I sat down at my desk at 7 a.m. and I had the finished product at 6 p.m. but I did not leave my desk the whole day. I became very invested in it very quickly," Willett said. "I just ran with it. And I'm really glad I did, because it turned out so cool."

Willett not only recreated his late dad's voice but also put together a video with photos of him with his mom, Trish Willett, and combined them all into a keepsake video book. After it all came together, he could barely wait and presented the final product to his mom ahead of Christmas.

"I wanted the video to feel like it was like a portal, that she could open this book and just be immersed in it and feel the emotion of their relationship," he said of his vision for the video book. "What the AI was able to do with that video, is really encapsulate their whole life together."

Willett recorded his mom's immediate and emotional reaction to the present, a clip of which was what he shared on TikTok.

"The video doesn't show it but it's probably a 10-minute hug after that. I don't think we moved for at least five minutes and we were both just crying," Willett said of the special moment.

"And then we couldn't talk about anything besides how cool it was," he continued. "I can also tell you with certainty that this is going to make it easier for her to get through this holiday because she's been reminded of him and now she knows he's with her always."

He and his family all agree, that instead of it being "weird," it turned into something "cool" instead. "Because it sounded so much like his voice, everybody was just, they were truly speechless," Willett said.

Now, Willett said he suggests others explore the option of using generative AI for good if they're so inclined.

"I never would have recommended this until I did it myself and I saw the moment my mom had," Willett said. "When done correctly, when done in a very well, cinematic way, I think it is literally the best thing you could ever give someone who's lost someone in their life."