In his heydays, Shatner played Captain Kirk in the famous Star Trek franchise.

Movie star William Shatner turned 90 on Tuesday and fittingly celebrated the event by creating an AI likeness of himself that can interact and make conversation with the generations of fans to come.

Shatner joined StoryFile, an interactive storytelling app, as a brand ambassador, and set things off by becoming the app’s first person to be featured in an AI-powered video. (The Times of Israel)

A video that talks back

Shatner’s interactive video will be available from May 2021. Through the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing, his StoryFile avatar will “talk back” with participants.

“Generations now and in the future will be able to have a conversation with William Shatner,” said StoryFile of the Star Trek celebrity.

“For all my children and all my children’s children and all my children’s loved ones and all the loved ones of the loved ones,” said Shatner. “That’s my gift to you down through time.”

How it works

On its website, StoryFile details how it makes a person’s video come alive.

“An individual is filmed answering questions about their life, which are then processed and stored on the StoryFile platform. Users can then have a real life-like conversation with the filmed-version of the individual on the web or mobile application – anytime, anywhere.”

An individual is asked questions from a prepared script. Their answers are recorded in a high-fidelity volumetric studio and then coded into Storyfile’s Conversa, an AI platform.

“This changes the trajectory of the future — of how we experience life today, and how we share those lessons and stories for generations to come,” StoryFile Co-Founder and CEO Heather Maio-Smith told Entertainment Weekly.

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Images credit: Shatner now (Flickr) and in Star Trek (Flickr)