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These animated photos move. But there is nothing human about them

2021-03-06T03:28:23.459Z


Deep Nostalgia is probably showing us the kind of technology that could change our reality. And our emotions make it hard to resist. | Technology | CNN


With this application you can "revive" your ancestors 0:52

(CNN) -

It's hard to explain the mix of emotions that comes from watching a photo of Frederick Douglass come to life at the touch of a button.

And there it is: he blinks and nods as if he had been alive yesterday, as if he hadn't died in 1895, before making movies became commonplace.

His animated image and others like it, which are at once haunting, emotional and a bit fanciful, are made possible by Deep Nostalgia, an artificial intelligence program on the genealogy platform MyHeritage.

When it comes to AI-animated images, the technology behind these Harry Potter-style photos isn't particularly complex.

Users are invited to provide old photos of their loved ones, and the program uses deep learning to apply predetermined movements to their facial features.

It also creates small moments that are not in the original photos, for example showing teeth or the side of a head.

Everything together generates an effect that, although it does not seem very natural, it dazzles you.

Reactions to Deep Nostalgia images - tears at the sight of a grandmother's smile, an unsettling feeling of connection to a long-dead icon of history - touch a mysterious emotional wall between us and this rapidly evolving type of technology. .

We trust our perception and emotions

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"The appeal here is that the visual images are visceral and compelling and we respond to them," says Hany Farid, associate dean and director of the School of Information at UC Berkeley.

We are visual beings.

When you see your grandmother or Mark Twain come to life, there is something fascinating about it, "he adds.

Fascinating and yes, also a little scary.

Our brains, sophisticated as they are, have a prehistoric response to things that are almost human, but not quite.

This is commonly called 'haunting valley'.

A host of

artificial intelligence-driven

deepfakes

and image manipulations set off this ancient alarm bell.

Even MyHeritage addresses this reaction in its explanation of the program.

Our brains, sophisticated as they are, have a prehistoric response to things that are almost human, but not quite.

This is commonly called the uncanny valley, and a host of

deepfakes

and AI-driven image manipulations set off this age-old alarm bell.

MyHeritage even addresses this reaction in its explanation of the program.

"Indeed, the results can be controversial and it is difficult to remain indifferent to this technology," can be read on its FAQ page.

We process images of people differently than those of objects

When it comes to the image of a beloved relative, the parts of our brain that love and fear confront each other, even if we are very clear that what we are seeing is not true.

'The way our brain processes images of people is different from that of inanimate objects.

It accesses the neural circuits, ”says Farid.

“For years we have been able to synthesize inanimate objects, and that completely fools the visual system because we have no preconceived notions of how they move.

But when it comes to humans, it lags behind.

Part of that is the subtle way we move and recognize these movements, ”he explains.

"My sense of wonder could be tinged with a sense of dread," said La Marr Jurelle Bruce, a professor at the University of Maryland who shared the animated image of Frederick Douglass, capturing the attention of hundreds of thousands of people online.

Artificial intelligence is based on data and rules

The

deepfakes

, which are a sophisticated fusion of synthetic audio and images, have been a point of contention for specialists in digital ethics for years, especially when it comes to issues such as altered pornography and fake videos that could threaten national institutions and financial

When it comes to more positive use, companies have increasingly turned to this technology to create highly customizable ad campaigns.

The reward, according to experts, is that the consumer can feel more attached to a brand or a product by seeing the specific way in which it would fit in their life, for example in a model with similar proportions, in their own language or in a Targeted ad that responds to your interests.

Those kinds of apps look for a similar kind of human connection as Deep Nostalgia.

But the fact is, there is nothing human about artificial intelligence.

Farid is careful to point out that machine learning, which is what powers the most widely available animation technologies like Deep Nostalgia, is a field within the great world of artificial intelligence.

Machine learning analyzes the data and finds patterns.

While a program can improve with more information, there is no intelligence or analysis involved in how it applies these patterns.

A technology that benefits many

There are many applications that benefit greatly from this type of data.

"When you predict the stock market, you want to find patterns," says Farid as an example.

Or when making cancer diagnoses.

I don't need to understand why cancer appears at the moment, I just want to know if it appears, ”he explains.

When applied to more human activities, a lack of, well, intelligence manifests itself.

The smiling faces of our ancestors, while poignant, naturally do not hold up once we give up our suspension of disbelief.

Artificial intelligence-generated renderings of human faces, another threat to the security of our online environment, often contain funny glitches in which a program, not quite sure what to do with irregular items like ears or glasses, spits out tiny monstrosities hidden in otherwise compelling faces.

Even the

extremely sophisticated

deepfakes

, like Tom Cruise's that are out there, often have little inconsistencies that make us doubt our own sense of reality.

No, Tom Cruise is not on TikTok, they are altered videos 1:26

What can happen in the future?

However, those inconsistencies are going to decrease as technology develops.

In this framework, Farid says the time has come for companies to critically analyze the ethical implications of their use.

"The technology sector has done things because they can and not because they should," he says.

"We have to stop building things because they're cool and start asking these tough questions before it's too late," he adds.

Before, for example, technology is so good that our emotions can override our keen senses of perception.

When using Deep Nostalgia, MyHeritage cautions users not to upload photos of living people without their consent.

It also claims that the company did not add audio options for user safety.

In the future, maybe another show can fill in those gaps and we can see, hear, and talk with people we've long lost.

That technology will present enormous challenges to our security and our sense of reality as we know it.

However, when it smiles at us through the comforting faces of our loved ones it will be much more difficult to resist.

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-03-06

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