Artificial intelligence can be used for many anti-social purposes, but like most technologies, it can also be used positively. Utilizing AI to bring the past to life is one of its many beneficial applications. The video listed below is my first attempt to animate an ancestor’s biography using artificial intelligence. Since photography was not in widespread use when many of our ancestors lived, the use of synthetic imagery is one of the few ways to represent their lives and times visually.
I have always loved history, and after my mother passed, I inherited her box of family history. I had never been interested in genealogy, but when I began to go through her box filled with photos, documents, and names I’d never heard of, I was hooked. I found a series of endless mysteries. Who were these people? Why did they move from state X to state Y? What kind of people were they?
Unlike some genealogists who shade the truth to portray their ancestors and the “old days” as something near perfection, I follow the truth, wherever it leads. Life was not perfect in 1624 when my first ancestor arrived in North America. Likewise, it was not ideal in 1724, 1824, 1924, or 2024. Despite the imperfections and challenges, my ancestors survived, and I am here. As the following video shows, if my great-grandfather, Whitfield Anthony Vandiver, had died in a military prison between 1864 and 1865, I would not exist. He survived and fathered my grandfather, Mannon, eight years after the end of the Civil War.