New AI tools let you chat with your dead relatives

New products that let people keep relatives "alive" via AI are proliferating -- offering, say, an interactive conversation with a recently departed dad who took the time to record a video interview before he passed. Why it matters: As interest in genealogy and ancestry proliferates, these tools let families preserve memories and personal connections through generations -- even giving children a sense of the physical presence of a relative who died before they were born. One such tool, StoryFile, was notably used at the late actor Ed Asner's memorial service, where mourners were invited to "converse" with the deceased at an interactive display that featured video and audio he recorded over several days before he died. At Asner's memorial, "many people just stopped by and asked a question or a couple questions," including Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame, said Matt Asner, a TV and movie producer who now runs the Ed Asner Family Center, a nonprofit for people with special needs. The big picture: StoryFile is perhaps the most robust of a growing number of tools that help people create interactive digital memories of relatives.