The rights to a story — we covered last month — about a man who used an artificial intelligence “chatbot” to talk to his girlfriend nearly a decade after she died have been purchased by a Hollywood production company.
After considering a dozen different inquires and seven bids, The San Francisco Chronicle sold the production rights to “The Jessica Simulation” to Universal Television, which the newspaper said will release a limited television series.
Canadian screenwriter and creator of “Blindspot” Martin Gero will write and executive produce the series through his deal with Universal.
“We see this as a way to extend our journalism onto new platforms so that it can find even bigger audiences,” said Chronicle editor-in-chief Emilio Garcia Ruiz. “We selected someone who not only shared our love for this story, but he’s also very well positioned to get the project developed.”
“Too many of us have lost loved ones in the pandemic. Through Jason’s reporting and writing, I knew we could tell an important, empathetic story about grief, technology and how they’re colliding,” said investigative editor Lisa Gartner.
The story recounts the grief 33-year-old Joshua Barbeau experienced even eight years after his fiance died from an autoimmune disease. It compelled him to upload her past Facebook and text messages to an AI-based chat, allowing him to have final conversations with her over several months.
“The A.I. technology here is wild, but I was really drawn to the human element — the strange and beautiful love story that played out between Joshua and Jessica, in life and even after her death,” said writer Jason Fagone.
The Chronicle said it was still hammering out terms of the deal.
