Whereas attending a convention at Oxford, Stephen Smith heard in regards to the dying of an acquaintance, Steven, whose interview occurred to be saved in his pc. Although Stephen wasn’t the interviewer and had no concept what the interview was all about, he put a hologram up and shot a query to the lifeless – the very day he died.
“Steven, what would you like your legacy to be,” he requested. “Life has its ups and downs. I need younger individuals to know that it doesn’t matter if life treats you properly or not. Simply keep it up, as a result of life is price dwelling.” That was the reply he acquired!
That’s when Stephen realized he needed extra from this. He arrange an account via StoryFile proper on the convention and allowed attendees to ‘work together with the lifeless’. Solely the attendees had no concept that Steven had died 12 hours in the past. “That’s after I realized this was going to be a game-changing expertise.”
StoryFile – a revolutionary method of storytelling
StoryFile, is an AI-powered video platform that’s cloud-based and automated, bringing the ability of conversational video into the limelight. Stephen Smith, CEO and co-founder of StoryFile, was the mind behind this innovation. Chances are you’ll recall him as the person who made his mom, the late Marina Smith MBE, undertake this expertise and communicate at her personal funeral.
In an unique chat with Analytics India Journal, Stephen spoke about his Indian roots, amongst different issues. “My mom, Marina Smith, was born in Kolkata to an Indian man. I met my grandfather final after I was simply 5 years outdated and discovered solely this 12 months that my grandparents had been divorced throughout World Conflict II. My grandma introduced my mom and aunt to England for his or her schooling.”
Now 55, Stephen recollects that his grandfather suffered a stroke throughout his go to to England. “I used to be 5 after I went to see him on the hospital. I bear in mind considering the way it had by no means occurred to me that my grandfather was Indian. So 40 years glided by earlier than I made a decision to do a DNA take a look at. I’m 20% Indian! For years, my mother hadn’t spoken a lot about this.”
From theology to expertise
Primarily based in LA, StoryFile was launched in 2017. It allowed individuals to create movies that could possibly be replayed to viewers utilizing the ability of AI. “Expertise just isn’t about expertise, it’s about human expertise.” The phrases saved echoing for lengthy, whereas Stephen sat in his California workplace, calmly answering my questions.
Stephen Smith, CEO, StoryFile
Stephen says that as a CEO, his foremost focus is on the enterprise of his fast-growing startup. The corporate faces advanced points associated to fundraising, audit safety, and recruitment methods. He says these items essentially come first, as with out them, there isn’t a enterprise. “I’m not a technologist. My background is in theology and philosophy. So I need to be the theologian operating a tech firm.”
Giving us a glimpse into the delivery of StoryFile, Stephen shares his story that dates again to the 90s, when he discovered himself engaged on a brand new media mission to movie the Holocaust survivors utilizing VCR cameras. He felt it was a bonus to have a digicam that would interview 1000’s of individuals.
Stephen didn’t suppose that he would find yourself operating a expertise firm. He got here to California in 2009 to run a basis created by ace filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who performed 55,000 interviews with the Holocaust survivors, making it the world’s largest oral historical past archive to ever exist. Stephen now serves as the chief director emeritus of USC Shoah Basis.
“In an effort to achieve success in getting the message out, I had to achieve success with expertise. I ran that organisation for 12 years and basically constructed a big media distribution platform for college students, lecturers, and universities, to get entry to an enormous database of content material. And that’s how I ended up ultimately constructing a media expertise firm.”
Stephen interviewed the survivors of the Holocaust, primarily to know why they inform their tales utilizing the latest media out there. “In 1945, I noticed that they had been telling their story by writing down on bits of paper and utilizing sound audio recordings. Then by way of movies and documentaries and in the end utilizing cameras that had been changing into more and more accessible.”
He goes on to speak about two important figures with utterly completely different life experiences however one factor in widespread – they understood the significance of documenting a historic occasion with the assistance of expertise, in essentially the most humane method attainable.
One was Armin T. Wegner, a journalist and author who took images of the Armenian Genocide in 1970. He used these photos to convey the reality of his state of affairs. Second, was Michael Hagopian, a filmmaker based mostly in Los Angeles, who had filmed individuals surviving the Armenian Genocide.
“The primary individual that Hagopian had interviewed was Armin Wegner. Happily, the story of that historic occasion can solely be advised due to these two males and their embrace of expertise and storytelling. So what this tells me is that expertise is about human expertise, and the way it can improve and allow us to be extra humane.”
Moral considerations round AI
Stephen’s curiosity lies in VR and the immersiveness of the XR, leveraging applied sciences between AI and visualisation. His workforce deploys tech as a chance for a person to inform a narrative, with out being altered by AI. He says, “AI is there to entry what exists and provide the greatest solutions to a query and never recreate the lesson.”
He thinks that the one method out is to make AI extra human. “So my query is, how can we use AI to reinforce the human expertise over the following few years? Metaverse may be something and all of the issues we would like it to be.” He additionally believes that people have to dig into the economics of AI, to seek out the stability between the trivialization of human expertise and deploy the identical for enhancement.
Star Trek actor William Shatner on the StoryFile studio
“There must be a unique stability between gaming, leisure, and fixing world issues. It doesn’t should all be philanthropic. However I might like to see that shift.”
The platform additionally caters to companies and interviewees, with no information taken by the corporate or anybody related to it. “What now we have is a really excessive bar round privateness. That is what encourages individuals to speak authentically about their lives.”
Smith believes that his platform is a well-curated model of ourselves that’s narrowly outlined. With StoryFile, one can curate an genuine model of oneself. He says it’s virtually like being in a journal or a diary. “When you take a look at social media channels, one can’t discover genuine variations of themself.”
StoryFile supplies a free, ad-free model of the software program, the place anybody can reply not less than 30 questions on themselves together with a free profile. “There’s no adverts on storytelling nor will ever be. We consider that is about individuals’s sacred house to inform their story in their very own phrases. The important thing factor is, it’s your story, it belongs to you and it’s protected with us.”
‘I didn’t discover it tough to speak to my mom’
When Stephen’s mom Mrs Smith handed away in Nottingham, England, she was nonetheless capable of share tales and hardships along with her household in her posthumous look. Stephen says that he needed to get to ‘know’ her story reasonably than ‘ask’.
“I used to be not recording the tapes as a result of I assumed she was going to die. I taped her as a result of she was alive. I wasn’t planning on utilizing them (the tapes) on the funeral. However when she handed away, it simply appeared apparent to me that I might ask these questions on the funeral. I didn’t discover it tough. I discovered it very easy to speak to her.”
Stephen has authored a number of books and has two titles coming this 12 months, specifically, ‘The Trajectory of Reminiscence’ and ‘Holocaust XR’.
Stephen’s innovation to seize individuals’s legacy has modified issues round dying. With the assistance of AI and holographic expertise, individuals are capable of seize reminiscences that they thought had been lengthy gone. It’s certainly unimaginable to spend time with the departed – that will mess with God’s plans – however StoryFile’s provides us a tiny shot at having that ‘one final discuss’.
