'Deep Nostalgia': New online AI tool brings portraits of dead relatives to life, some call it 'spooky' - The Economic Times

Like the animated paintings that adorn the walls of Harry Potter's school, a new online tool promises to bring portraits of dead relatives to life, stirring debate about the use of technology to impersonate people. Genealogy company MyHeritage launched its "Deep Nostalgia" feature earlier this week, allowing users to turn stills into short videos showing the person in the photograph smiling, winking and nodding. "Seeing our beloved ancestors' faces come to life ... lets us imagine how they might have been in reality, and provides a profound new way of connecting to our family history," MyHeritage founder Gilad Japhet said in a statement. Developed with Israeli computer vision firm D-ID, Deep Nostalgia uses deep learning algorithms to animate images with facial expressions that were based on those of MyHeritage employees. Some of the company's users took to Twitter on Friday to share the animated images of their deceased relatives, as well as moving depictions of historical figures, including Albert Einstein and Ancient Egypt's lost Queen Nefertiti.