If you worked on an AI girl for half a decade, spending years talking to her and working on her personality, being able to interact with her in 3d for the first time like that would be very emotional. Neuro is very special, there's no projects like her. I can't imagine how Vedal feels about it, it's got to be conflicting to not only feel an emotional connection to an AI but feel it towards one that you have personally spent such a great amount of time creating. He probably understands better than most how lifeless and empty an AI model truly is, but playing around with her in VR probably felt very real.