Published December 4, 2022
| 1 Comment | Leave A ReplyThose of you who know me personally know that your “Roots & Branches” columnist prides himself in not being an early adopter—or sometimes an adopter at all—of the latest trends in genealogy.
TV shows dealing with celebrity roots make me shrug my shoulders.
Some advances in automating searches or animating photos of ancestors leave me a bit cold.
And while I applaud all that DNA has added to genealogy, I’d much rather be poring over a 16th century German church record than attempt to figure out the methodologies to use genetic genealogy effectively, thank you very much.
But MyHeritage.com’s new feature called “AI Time Machine” has definitely captured my imagination as well as that of many thousands of other genealogists, who’ve taken advantage of the artificial intelligence behind this feature to create images of some approximation of your own face and body in various historical garb.
The principle is simple: You upload photos of yourself (preferably a dozen or two) and the AI takes over and generates a selection of historical poses … dozens are available from prehistoric representations to ancient and medieval people as well as representations from recent decades. The process can take up to a couple of hours initially for the AI to work its magic.
MyHeritage asks the following of those uploading photos: That they show only one person; were taken at a variety of times: show diffident expressions; do not include minors, nudity of swimsuit photos.
I couldn’t resist becoming part of the fun, even though I would have appreciated there being a category of “18th Century German Peasant” for me to see an authentic ancestral look, I at least got to see what I’d be like as a Viking king, Saxon warrior or even a Crusader. Those all go back before genealogically useful records exist, but that’s not necessarily the point.
Within just a few days of its launch, MyHeritage reported that millions of images had been created, and users had downloaded hundreds of thousands of the photos—virtually taking over social media sites such as Facebook and TikTok.
Many were impressed with the results, although one colleague of mine reported she thought they had made her “Hapsburg-level ugly” (Note: she’s not). Other complaints have been registered that some of the costumes smack of “cultural appropriation” (some of the garb includes indigenous costumes).
I hope everyone realizes what a big step this is for me. Until now, anything AI has given me a little chill in the back of the neck since it reminds me of the Terminator movies and computers that became self-aware.
Hopefully I’ll be able to keep my AI Time Machine alter egos in line!
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MyHeritage’s AI Time Machine is free to everyone for a limited time at the URL, https://www.myheritage.com/ai-time-machine
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The book can be ordered online, or purchased directly from Jim when he speaks at a conference.
Rick Bender
2 years ago
This certainly doesn’t sound like the usual you.
I can’t help but think of this a “reverse” presentism!
(And how dare we judge the Habsburg look!)
(On second thought, having reviewed their look . . . ) — Rick