Dead woman spoke to relatives at her own funeral

Artificial intelligence made it possible for a dead woman to speak to mourners at her funeral – and it certainly polarised social media.

The Holocaust activist, Marina Smith, 87, appeared on screen to answer questions, thanks to her son's firm. The "holographic conversational video experience" by StoryFile used 20 cameras to film Smith answering questions in January before her passing.

Her son, Stephen, told The Telegraph.: “What was most valuable to me as her son, was the fact that my mother was prepared to answer questions about her early childhood.

"This included difficult topics such as the divorce of her parents and living as an immigrant from India.

"She was also prepared to answer interesting questions about her points of view on politics, the environment and the future, which was interesting because I had never had those conversations with her before."

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The footage was then fed into software that virtually recreated her appearance.

"Mum answered questions from grieving relatives after they had watched her cremation," he explained.

"The extraordinary thing was that she answered their questions with new details and honesty. People feel emboldened when recording their data. Mourners might get a freer, truer version of their lost loved one."

Twitter was divided about virtually bringing someone back to life, with one saying: "I get it but I would not condone it".

"This is seriously creepy," another reiterated.

Meanwhile, a third joked: "I want to do this so I can record the message 'Who the f*** invited you?' for that one person I know will turn up I didn't like..."

One quizzed: "How did you know the mourning family would want this?"

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