As artificial intelligence (AI) outputs historically distorted images and anti-Semitism rises worldwide, an attempt is underway within the UK to make use of AI to inform the stories of Holocaust survivors.
British Sky News and Perspective reported on the twentieth (local time) that the Holocaust Educational Trust has launched an academic program for British students.
Currently, Holocaust survivors meet with 1000’s of scholars yearly and share their experiences, but as they’re already of their 80s and 90s, it is anticipated that meeting face-to-face will soon develop into difficult.
To that end, HET combined filming technology using nine camera rigs with speech-to-text recognition AI technology to create a virtual 3D version of a Holocaust survivor who could answer 1,000 questions from students.
After the AI understands the query, it plays the survivor’s recorded answer, giving students the sensation of getting a natural conversation with a Holocaust survivor.
Moreover, using virtual reality (VR) headsets, students can explore key locations related to survivors’ testimonies, including their pre-war hometown and the concentration camp where they were imprisoned.
“Unfortunately, in recent months there was an explosion of anti-Semitism, including inappropriate references to the Holocaust,” said Karen Pollack, chief executive of HET. “Conspiracy theories and misinformation proceed to spread on social media, so it can be crucial that young people learn in regards to the Holocaust.”
So, he added, “We decided not to attend until there was nobody left, but to begin without delay.”
This educational program features Manfred Goldberg, a 94-year-old man who survived the Stutthof concentration camp.
Having given testimony in a whole bunch of faculties for over 20 years, he said it was a “life-changing experience” for college kids to listen to his story and that it modified their lives. “It’s a really powerful response and it’s what keeps me going to this age,” he said.
Goldberg spent five days filming himself answering greater than 1,000 questions using a special capture camera inside a green screen rig.
“In the course of the dark days of the Holocaust, I never dreamed that someday I and my story can be immortalized in this fashion,” he said. “I actually have spoken to 1000’s of scholars, probably hundreds of thousands now. This is really amazing. “It is going to be a legacy,” he said.
The ‘Testimony 360’ program began in London last week. Starting next yr, virtual testimonies from three other Holocaust survivors will probably be added.
Meanwhile, last week UNESCO warned that malicious actors could use generative AI to spread disinformation and anti-Semitism across the Holocaust.
Reporter Im Dae-jun ydj@aitimes.com
