Grandmother Converses With Loved Ones During Her Funeral Using AI
The 87-year-old woman, who died in June, smiles as she graciously responds to one of our questions. Screenshot via StoryFile
With artificial intelligence, 87-year-old Marina Smith was able to engage in conversation with her family members even after uttering her last words in June.
This “conversation” took place at her funeral—made possible with technology developed by her son, Stephen Smith, the chief executive and co-founder of StoryFile, which taps on AI to make “videos that talk back.”
Through a television screen, “Smith” took questions from her audience, seemingly listening in to their words before preparing her responses. It was as though she was alive and communicating with them via video call.
The 87-year-old, a Holocaust education campaigner, was the co-founder of the National Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire and was presented with an MBE in 2005 for her efforts, the BBC reports. StoryFile’s work is largely built on the foundation of her cause; it previously created holograms of Holocaust survivors for the USC Shoah Foundation.
Unlike other forms of AI technology promising to let people communicate with deceased loved ones, StoryFile’s version uses snippets of things the woman actually said. This ensures that the AI version stays true to its muse, eternalizing her most memorable aspects.
The technology requires hours of recordings from the actual person while they are still alive. During this stage, the person physically sits down to address various questions about their life.
The AI would then study people’s posthumous questions and play back appropriate clips. If it doesn’t have a proper response, the asker would be encouraged to come up with something else.
Smith’s video version now lives on the StoryFile website to tend to more queries by the internet.
Her double was able to answer—in great detail—to DesignTAXI’s question: “What do you miss most about your youth?”
“With old age comes new problems, really,” Mrs Smith told us, before spinning into an anecdote about a Sri Lankan friend who had been courageous all his life, despite being thrown just about every problem one could think of. In the later part of his life, his resilience waned as he was diagnosed with cancer and didn’t have long to live.
“Growing old is not easy. And looking back, [people] don’t see… what an amazing life they had,” Mrs Smith concluded.
Stephen Smith recounts that those who attended her funeral were moved by her convincing presence. They were also pleasantly surprised when she brought up pre-recorded details they didn’t know about.
In his view, this authenticity might have been propelled by the freeing sensation the alive person gets from being interviewed. “People feel emboldened when recording their data,” he tells the Telegraph. Consequently, mourners are rewarded with “a freer, truer version” of their loved one after death.
StoryFile believes its technology could have commercial applications too, such as for online support.
Stirringly, there’s also the potential to hold a conversation with your younger (digitized) self, “or introduce your children to your 16-year-old self,” Stephen Smith notes.
