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An AI-driven chatbot technology has allowed one woman to answer questions from beyond the grave at her own funeral, with mourners able to dive into her fascinating life in a morbid but futuristic tribute. The technology was provided by her son, who runs a company that creates “holographic conversational video experiences”, and allowed Holocaust campaigner Marina Smith MBE to be “present, in a sense”, according to son Stephen Smith, reports the Telegraph.

Mrs Smith passed away in June of this year and her funeral was held shortly after in Nottinghamshire, UK. Having led a meaningful life educating people about the Holocaust, her family wished for her message to continue after her death, and the holographic experience during her funeral allowed just that.

The experience used StoryFile, an AI conversational bot that uses 20 different cameras and recordings of the subject to create a digital, holographic clone that can be interacted with. While the experience was powered by AI, the answers given to questions were entirely Mrs Smith’s own words.

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I have been thinking about death lately. Not a lot — a little. Possibly because I recently had a month-long bout of Covid-19. And, I read a recent story about the passing of the actor Ed Asner, famous for his role as Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” More specifically, the story of his memorial service where mourners were invited to “talk” with Asner through an interactive display that featured video and audio that he recorded before he died. The experience was created by StoryFile, a company with the mission to make AI more human. According to the company, their proprietary technology and AI can match pre-recorded answers with future questions, allowing for a real-time yet asynchronous conversation.

Continue reading “Death, resurrection and digital immortality in an AI world” »

It was clearly about Albert Einstein although not a lot of people seemed to be aware of the fact. It was a great song for a video, and one of my favorite on this particular album, the other’s being “Nobody Home”, “Closet Chronicles”, and “Dust In The Wind”.

Point of Know Return was HUGE in 1978! I remember listening to it over and over and over…loved the many instrumental breaks and solos.

Continue reading “‘Portrait (He Knew)’ was released in 1977 on the album Point Of Know Return” »

NASA will take Amazon’s Alexa to the moon, along with a video-conferencing tablet, on its first Artemis mission. If the experiment is successful, astronauts could one day be talking to a spaceship computer, just like on Star Trek.

Hennessey has revealed further details about its first electric car, the six-wheeled Project Deep Space grand tourer with a mind-boggling power output and a $3 million (£2.25m) price.

The outlandish EV — rendered by Autocar above, based on official sketches — will feature a central driving position within a diamond-shaped four-seat layout.

American luxury GT will appear in show form in 2024; priced from £2 million, targeting 620 miles on each charge.

Continue reading “2026 Hennessey 2400bhp six-wheeler EV targets 1000km range” »

“Fire-proofing” wood and yet retaining the natural aesthetics of wood grain is now possible.

The invasion that Russia has wrongfully started in Ukraine has led to more people talking about the threat of Nuclear war and World War 3. How does the Doomsday Clock relate to all this?

And Lifespan News: https://www.youtube.com/LifespanNews.

Continue reading “What Happens When the Doomsday Clock Hits Midnight?” »

Hui Li, PhD, a Department of Pathology researcher, along with his team discovered that a gene responsible for the deadliest type of brain tumor is also found to be responsible for two forms of childhood cancer. The new discovery may open the door to the first targeted treatments for two types of rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue that primarily strikes young children. Research also suggests the gene may play an important role in other cancers that form in muscle, fat, nerves and other connective tissues in both children and adults. Hui Li, PhD, and team published their findings in the scientific journal PNAS.

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The system, named Cas13D-N2V8, showed a significant reduction in the number of off-target genes and no detectable collateral damage in cell lines and somatic cells, which indicated its future potential, according to a report published in South China Morning Post newspaper on Wednesday.