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Home Future

Portrait-to-animation AI brings to life Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, and more

This is very surreal.

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu
March 2, 2021
in Future, News
Reading Time: 5 mins read
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Marie Curie (1920). Credit: My Heritage.

Going from pictures to moving pictures was a huge leap in technology and value. We can now archive human culture in a far richer format than simple text or static photos. Now, it is even possible to fill in the blanks from the past. Using AI, researchers have transformed photos of famous people into hyper-realistic animations that shine new light upon historical figures.

Charles Darwin (1855). Credit: My Heritage.

Anyone can use the tool — fittingly named Deep Nostalgia — to animate faces in photos uploaded to the system. The new service, which was produced by genealogy site MyHeritage, uses deep learning to turn a static portrait into a short video with life-like facial expressions.

Amelia Earhart (1937). Credit: My Heritage.

Specifically, the AI uses a method known as adversarial networks (or GANs for short) in which two different AIs are pit against each other. One of the networks is responsible for producing content while the other verifies how well the content emulates references. Over billions of iterations, the AI can get very good — so good it might fool you that it is original footage.

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β€œIt makes me so happy to see him smile again!" Try our new #DeepNostalgia #PhotoAnimation feature for yourself and prepare to be AMAZED!!! https://t.co/p3h600G3MX pic.twitter.com/YdAn9IxyW0

— MyHeritage (@MyHeritage) February 28, 2021

The tool is ideal for animating old family photos and celebrity pictures. It can even work with drawings and illustrations.

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pic.twitter.com/v4vr01WXlT

— domenico panacea (@domenicopanacea) February 28, 2021

I just ran the @Warcraft cover through the Deep Nostalgia Tool, and this happened… pic.twitter.com/1eD3bb7fAN

— Solitaire #The06 (@SolitaireYTG) March 1, 2021

So I wanted to know how the recent #DeepLearning facial animations services do with busts and decided to give that botched Christiano Ronaldo statue a spin. What ensued can only be summarised as #DeepNostalgia –> #DeeplyDisturbed. Sweet dreams! ;) pic.twitter.com/g2J0LV5DAi

— Jan Smeddinck πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡ΊπŸŒ (@smeddinck) February 27, 2021

In order to bring a portrait to life, the AI maps a person’s face onto footage of another. It’s essentially the same way deepfakes work to impersonate people, whether it’s Donald Trump joining Breaking Bad or Mark Zuckerberg saying things he never actually said. But since the tool doesn’t also come with fake audio, there shouldn’t be any risk of nefarious usage — yet.

oh my! @MyHeritage has created such an extraordinary photo animation tool. Here is my grandmother! I have clients waiting for work today, how can I tear myself away from this and from #RootsTechConnect pic.twitter.com/op6cMjcXXH

— Nicole Lascelle (@pedigreetales) February 25, 2021

Here's Alexander the Great pic.twitter.com/djbnzszFM0

— Flint Dibble πŸ–πŸΊπŸ“– (@FlintDibble) February 28, 2021

Some will feel enchanted by Deep Nostalgia, while others will undoubtedly be creeped out. But regardless of how the products of this AI make you feel, I think we can all agree that the technology behind them is damn impressive.

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Tags: artificial intelligencedeepfake
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Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

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