Nostalgia sells and marketers know it. People like to fantasize about a past they think was better than it probably was – and wonder what it would have been like for their family members who went through it. To take advantage of this, a genealogy tracking service called MyHeritage has launched an AI-powered tool called Deep Nostalgia, which animates old photos of users’ family members, whether deceased or otherwise.
Several users of the service have taken to Twitter to share animated images of their grandparents, analyzed and displayed different facial expressions. The style of each video is almost the same: the subject moves their eyes around and then tilts their head slightly, as if trying to answer something in response to a question, before returning their gaze to the viewer. But then it’s early days for service, and chances are it’s going to be very flexible eventually.
Sign out this example found on Twitter below:
Mostly an ad and a fad? – We would never discourage people from researching their origins or heritage, but this particular tool from MyHeritage looks little like a marketing project … much like its previous attempt at virality, in which AI used the quality of old family photos.
MyHeritage asks for a lot of user data, which can later be used to try to sell customers on paid services. There are also legitimate concerns about the use and protection of users’ DNA. The criticism applies to other giants in the industry such as Ancestry, 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA, all of which promise to provide a wealth of information about your roots in exchange for your privacy. Sensitive information, such as user DNA, is then stored in massive databases that can be sold to medical technology companies … or that could be compromised via hacks.
“Free” – Although the reuse of old photos is new, and the use of the service is apparently free, we can not help but think that seeing meemaw as an animated deepfake is not worth giving MyHeritage’s privacy policy and terms of service not, because who knows where these images might end up. And if meemaw has moved down this deadly coil, we can not exactly give her permission.