Mourners at a deceased woman’s funeral in England’s Nottingham were in for a "shock" that never thought they would experience ever. They found Marina Smith, whose death they were mourning, talking to them at her own funeral. This was made possible by a new 'holographic' video technology that is powered by artificial intelligence. 


Marina Smith, a Holocaust educator who spent her childhood in India, died in June at the age of 87. At a service shortly after her cremation in Babworth, Nottingham, on July 29, she appeared as a hologram and spoke about her life, spirituality, and even responded to questions from her family members, Daily Mail reported. 


It’s her son Dr Stephen Smith, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based AI company StoryFile, who created the technology.


Smith said the hologram 'shocked' the mourners as it answered questions with “new details and honesty”.     


“Mum answered questions from grieving relatives after they had watched her cremation. The extraordinary thing was that she answered their questions with new details and honesty,” Smith told The Telegraph. 


How The Technology Works


According to Smith, as reported in the media, StoryFile creates a digital clone of a person using 20 synchronised cameras and records them answering a range of questions.


The footage is then processed by experts who tag clips and use it to train an AI that can respond to these questions in a natural way. 


The finished product is uploaded to the StoryFile platform, which can be then interacted with after the person’s death, with the technology creating the illusion of a real-time conversation, the Daily Mail report said.


The StoryFile technology was made available to the public in the UK this week for £39.99 (around Rs 3,840). 


StoryFile was launched in 2017, and it originally intended to preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors and other historical figures.


According to the Daily Mail report, anyone who wants to create a StoryFile will have to first choose topics they think their family members and friends would like to ask about, usually relationships or childhood incidents.


They will then be asked 75 questions from of a bank of 2.5 lakh potential  questions with two-minute video answers, which are then transformed into their digital likeness.


According to the report, it’s nothing like a deepfake video, and does not put words into the person's mouth. In case the hologram does not have a particular answer, it will tell the family member or friend to ask something else.


Who Was Marian Smith?


Marina Smith was a philanthropist who helped people in underdeveloped areas through volunteer service. She had also set up a non-profit.


In 1978, Marina had purchased a derelict farm in Nottinghamshire, and started running a Christian conference and retreat centre from there along with her husband, the report said. In 1995, they converted it into the National Holocaust Centre, which is the UK’s only museum dedicated to Holocaust education.


Marina Smith was on the Queen’s 2005 New Year’s Honours List, and was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Holocaust remembrance and education.



How Marina Smith Prepared For Her Funeral Speech 


According to the report quoted above, the 87-year-old spent two days in January recording answers to her Storyfile questions, using her computer and a webcam. 


Smith said his mother was asked questions about her early childhood at her funeral.


“This included difficult topics such as the divorce of her parents and living as an immigrant from India,” he was quoted as saying in the Telegraph report.


She also answered questions about her views on politics and other things, which Smith said was interesting because they had never had such a conversation with her before.


“Relatives were staggered by my mum’s new honesty at her funeral. She had previously been too embarrassed to reveal her true childhood,” he said, adding: “A question about it at the funeral suddenly had her revealing her childhood in India that we knew nothing about.”   


Star Trek’s William Shatner Has Kept A Hologram Ready 


The Daily Mail report said StoryFile worked with Star Trek's William Shatner last year to create his hologram that he said will help “preserve his memory and legacy for generations to come”.


“Shatner is going where no one has gone before,” StoryFile co-founder and CEO Heather Maio-Smith had said at the time, according to the report. 


“Generations in the future will be able to have a conversation with him. Not an avatar, not a deep fake, but with the real William Shatner answering their questions about his life and work.”