Future generations can digitally “interview” Holocaust survivors long after they are no more.

And it will feel like a real, live interview. Heather Maio, who has for years worked with exhibits related to the Holocaust, initiated a project to record interviews with survivors of the horrific genocide. These interviews would be interactive, with the viewer (the “interviewer”)  getting the impression that the Holocaust survivor is sitting across and answering questions as they are lobbed. (CBS News/60 Minutes)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) to record Holocaust horrors

Maio thought AI could instill the interactivity she sought in the interviews.

She ran the idea past Stephen Smith, the executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg, who directed “Schindler’s List,”  had established the Shoah Foundation to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

“I wanted to talk to a Holocaust survivor like I would today, with that person sitting right in front of me,” she suggested to CBS reporter Lesley Stahl.

Despite initial doubts over the project (for example, it would “Disnify” the Holocaust) the survivors were unequivocal: they welcomed the idea enthusiastically.

How they do it

A Holocaust veteran spends five days answering every possible question on their ordeal. More than 20 cameras record the interview from all possible angles inside a giant dome. The interviewers log the questions and answers into a database. They also enter a range of alternative questions.

During an “interview” the AI algorithm searches the database and comes up with the relevant sound bits and video images to answer the questions.

The test!

Pinchas Gutter, who was sent to the Majdanek concentration camp at age 11, was the first Holocaust survivor filmed for the project. They asked him about 2,000 questions during the filming.

The real-life Gutter then interviewed his own digital avatar.

“Can you sing me a song from your youth?” he asked.

“You want me to sing it for you?” answered back Gutter’s hologram.

“Yes, please,” Gutter said.

Gutter’s digital image thereafter began to sing in Polish, and the live Gutter joined in.

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