MyHeritage 'creep, unethical' Deep Nostalgia

Genealogy company MyHeritage has launched 'Deep Nostalgia', an AI system that enables users to aminate a person in a photograph. 

Developed with Israeli AI firm D-ID, Deep Nostalgia uses artifical intellligence to animate images so that they smile, wink, nod, and move their heads from side to side.

Reaction to the tool has been mixed. Some describe the results as 'amazing' and 'emotional', while others see it as 'spooky', 'creepy' and 'unethical'. Photographs of both deceased and living people can be animated using Deep Nostalgia.

MyHeritage told the BBC that it did not include speech 'in order to prevent abuse, such as the creation of deepfake videos of living people'.

In March 2022, MyHeritage introduced LiveStory, which enables users to animate their creations through vocal storytelling by using deep learning algorithms that draw on a custom set of over 140 voices in 31 languages.