Deep Nostalgia has left Internet users spooked after giving them the chance to bring back long-lost loved ones.The mobile app, which uses artificial intelligence to animate static photos, came to prominence last year when a video of a 99-year-old D-Day veteran seeing his late wife animated by the app 32 years after her death went viral.The TikTok video, featuring 'Papa Jake' who was part of the beach landings in 1944, attracted more than 39 million views.
It shows the veteran with tears in his eyes seeing an animated photo of his late wife Lola, taken at her high school graduation.
In the viral clip, he says: "Holy smokes. She's alive, I can't believe it." The couple were married for nearly 60 years. The tool is part of a family history app, MyHeritage, built by Israeli AI video firm D-ID.
Since the app's launch in February 2021, the firm claims it has animated more than 100 million photos, at one point being the most downloaded app on the iPhone app store.However, despite Deep Nostalgia giving countless people the chance to digitally resurrect late relatives, the deepfake technology behind the app has been criticised as 'creepy'.This is because its smart AI can reanimate centuries-old photographs in a realistic way.When a user uploads a photo, Deep Nostalgia uses AI to merge a subjec'ts face with animations in order to provide a "realistic depiction of how a person could have moved and looked if they were captured on video," said MyHeritage.
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