The genealogy website MyHeritage has unveiled a new AI tool that turns photos of deceased relatives into scary videos.
The DeepNostalgia feature is powered by technology developed by Israeli technology company D-ID. MyHeritage says it uses several drivers to animate faces:
Each driver is a video that consists of a fixed sequence of movements and gestures. Deep Nostalgia can very precisely apply drivers to a face in your photo, creating a short video that you can share with your friends and family. The driver guides the movements in the animation so that you can see your ancestors smile, blink and turn your head.
With our new Deep Nostalgia ™, you can see how a person from an old photo could have moved and looked if they had been captured on video! Read more: https://t.co/ZwUwzJRQ26 #RootsTech #RootsTechConnect pic.twitter.com/LERXhrqiut
– MyHeritage (@MyHeritage) February 25, 2021
I would love to have the chance to speak to my grandparents again. But I am not comfortable with digitally resurrecting them without their consent.
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MyHeritage says DeepNostalgia does not generate speech to prevent people from using it to make deepfake videos. But the company created a voice for a revived Abraham Lincoln.
Even if the feature produced a speech for the people in the photos, it would not be an accurate representation of who they really are. As Neural editor Tristan Greene said:
An AI that mimics them is no more accurate or powerful than just asking someone to impersonate: it is not the real thing, no matter how skilled the impersonator is.
Still, I am not averse to testing the technology alone. There is no one whose company I like the most.
However, I was a little concerned about MyHeritage’s history of data reach and incomprehensible contracts. But my curiosity quickly controlled my caution.
After watching the movie turn me into a wide-eyed monster, I was happy that I didn’t send anyone I liked to the mysterious valley.
Despite my own qualms, the digital resurrection is quickly becoming popular.
In the past few months alone, Microsoft has obtained a patent for a chatbot that allows talking to the dead, a brewery has used the fake of a deceased singer in a new advertising campaign and an AI recreation of a Korean pop star sang a ballad on TV.
Technology may not be able to get the dead back to life, but it can probably make a lot of money with them – and the people they miss.
Published on February 26, 2021 – 19:56 UTC