MyHeritage, a company for "discovering family history" — as they describe themselves — has released "Deep Nostalgia", which uses AI to animate photos. Upload a picture, and the AI produces a gif that smiles, blinks, and moves its eyes around.
It's based on tech by D-ID, and yowsa is it ever unsettling!
I'm certain that some people will an animated photo of their grandfather heartwarming. Personally, I find it both a) technologically super intriguing and b) skin-crawlingly weird. Even MyHeritage itself notes, in its FAQ, that one's mileage may vary on this one …
This technology is fascinating but a bit uncanny, don't you think?
Some people love the Deep Nostalgia™ feature and consider it magical, while others find it creepy and dislike it. Indeed, the results can be controversial and it's hard to stay indifferent to this technology. We invite you to create videos using this feature and share them on social media to see what your friends and family think. This feature is intended for nostalgic use, that is, to bring beloved ancestors back to life. Our driver videos don't include speech in order to prevent abuse of this , such as the creation of "deep fake" vi deos of living people. Please use this feature on your own historical photos and not on photos featuring living people without their permission.
MyHeritage markets this as a way to animate old family photos, but as I understand it, there's nothing stopping anyone from using it to animate a newer photo. So: How's this gonna be used to troll and abuse people? It'll happen, though precisely what forms it'll take I can't yet hazard.