Harry Potter's Tom Riddle Diary Comes to Life, Thanks to AI

AI is finally realising the dreams of Harry Potter fans. A video circulating on social media is drawing comparisons to one of the most memorable magical objects from the Harry Potter universe: Tom Riddle's diary.

The clip, shared by AI enthusiasts on X, appears to show a reMarkable e-paper tablet connected to Anthropic's Fable 5 AI model. In the demonstration, a user writes a question by hand using the stylus, and moments later, the same page appears to write back in digital ink, creating the illusion that the notebook itself is alive.

This “magical” e-reader is a result of an interactive AI mod feature developed by Canadian developer Maxime Rivest, who turned 

How the Setup Appears to Work

According to the details available in Rivest's GitHub repository, the system combines a reMarkable Paper Pro e-reader with Anthropic's latest Fable 5 AI model.

The workflow appears to be relatively straightforward. A user, likely Rivest himself, writes “hello my name is Harry Potter,” naturally on the e-reader, after which software recognises the handwritten text, sends it to the AI model for processing, and writes the generated response back onto the same page in handwriting-like digital ink.

Unlike interacting with ChatGPT or other AI assistants on a smartphone or computer, the experience removes keyboards, chat windows and glowing displays. The result is an interface that feels closer to writing in a physical notebook than chatting with an AI.

But in the background process, the interaction looks as if the user were talking to someone via the e-reader, exactly in Tom Riddle's diary style.

Why People Are Comparing It to Tom Riddle's Diary

In the Harry Potter books and the 2002 movie, Tom Riddle's enchanted diary responded to handwritten questions, carrying on conversations as though the notebook itself were alive. The text Harry wrote disappeared before an answer appeared on the paper.

The viral demonstration appears to recreate that same interaction using modern AI. Instead of magic, handwriting recognition, large language models and an e-paper display work together to produce responses directly on the page.

The resemblance has made the clip particularly popular among AI enthusiasts, many of whom have described it as one of the most imaginative uses of generative AI they've seen.

Could This Actually Be Built?

Technically, yes.

All of the individual technologies required already exist. Modern handwriting recognition can accurately interpret handwritten notes, while AI models such as Fable 5 are capable of generating contextual responses in real time. E-paper tablets can also refresh portions of the display to show newly generated text.

According to the developer, the feature is built using an image-input compatible LLM (large language model). The text scribbled on the e-reader is read as a PNG and then sent to the AI model, which generates a response and writes it back on the E Ink display. While the current implementation of the technology is based on Fable 5, the GitHub listing shows ‘Riddle’ can work with OpenAI, OpenRouter, and Groq APIs, and even local servers that support image input.

What remains unclear is whether the exact implementation shown in the viral clip genuinely works as demonstrated and will be available to more users, especially the “Potterheads.” According to the repository, the project will be open-sourced in the coming days, but downloading and running the programme would require some technical knowledge.

More Than a Viral Demo

For years, fans of Harry Potter books and movies have dreamt of magical possessions even if they were unrealistic. But AI is making those dreams real, sort of. ‘Riddle’ is the latest example. Instead of chat windows, prompts and keyboards, developers are increasingly experimenting with interfaces that blend AI into familiar physical experiences, from smart glasses and voice assistants to digital notebooks.

If projects like this eventually become commercially available, AI conversations could begin to feel less like messaging an app and more like writing in a notebook that quietly answers back.