A deceased woman has been able to talk to mourners at her own funeral thanks to new AI-powered'holographic' video technology. Marina Smith MBE, who passed away in June at the age of 87, was able to appear as a hologram at a service shortly after her cremation in Babworth, Nottingham on July 29. Mrs Smith, a Holocaust educator, gave a brief speech about her life and spirituality and responded to questions from family members attending the ceremony. The technology, available in the UK from this week, was created by her son Dr Stephen Smith, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based AI company StoryFile. Dr Smith said the hologram'shocked' mourners and answered questions with'new details and honesty'.

The idea of conversing with mourners at your own funeral may sound like the plot from the latest episode of Black Mirror. But it could become a reality, thanks to a Los Angeles-based startup, which has developed a'holographic conversational vido experience'. StoryFile creates a digital clone of the subject by using 20 synchronised cameras to record them answering a series of questions. Experts then process the footage, tagging clips and using it to train an artificial intelligence (AI) that can provide responses to these questions in natural language. The finished product is then uploaded to the StoryFile platform, which can be interacted with after the individual has passed away.