Hacker News Reader

Comment by syntaxing | Hacker News Reader

Edit: Seems like its based off of something similar to this (https://github.com/AliaksandrSiarohin/first-order-model)

This is pretty cool and eerie at the same time. The biggest thing to keep into mind about these algorithms is that the computer “dream” of these moving videos so they can be inaccurate. Nevertheless, seeing some moving video of my ancestors would be pretty neat.

View on HN

Within about an hour, I got sent the link to Deep Nostalgia by several acquaintances. None of whom are AI Researchers or particularly tech minded. Daily Prophet come to life resonates. ML techniques that touch universal, ancestral themes clearly have more mainstream appeal than an agent that can solve geometry proofs. Raw human emotional response is thus a crucial component of evaluating Beneficial AI.

Alas, the image you see in your head is also a dream created by your brain's neural networks.

Except brain's neural network don't work the same way

My understanding (happy to be proven incorrect) is that's still a matter of disagreement. AFAIK, the idea of the brain having feature detectors of various kinds remains a matter of research as it has been for decades.

You don't need to answer the general question. The brain can't be reasonably modeled by this particular neural network.

It's a dream created using information from many other scenes you saw of the person.

The AI "dream" is based only on the single image.

I’m not an expert but my understanding of it is that our brains aren’t like computers. So, rather than storing precise memories, we probably have multiple memories sharing the same neural connections. Like, the memory of grandpa’s beard is probably mixed up with the memory of all sorts of beards.

In that way, the artificial neural net seems similar (while at the same time vastly different).

Not if you have aphantasia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

Even people with aphantasia see as a result of a combination of bottom-up and top-down processing.

Also note that aphantasia is not a condition which is confirmed to even exist.

As an aphant I’m pretty sure it exists. But just in case let me close my eyes and double-check...nope still nothing there. ;-).

I'm pretty sure that you either see the same thing as I do when you close your eyes, or you don't, and that it's very difficult to communicate about what "seeing" something in your mind actually means.

Honestly it reminds me of an effect straight out of Harry Potter films. Would be an interesting affect if it could be easily applied to otherwise static billboards and such

s/can be inaccurate/are a complete fabrication

I think that puppeteering the dead is actually quite a disturbing thing to do in general, and find endeavors such as the "resurrection" of Tupac to be in very poor taste.

It can be both a fabrication and accurate, though. That's what people are so impressed by here.

Accurate to what? How some other person moves? Its like wearing someone else's skin Ed Gein style. Maybe if they were modeling it based on other photography.

But it can't be accurate. Actors know that even micromovements tell a story and convey emotion. The computer cannot possibly infer enough about the person from a single photo to reconstruct that story. Were they a fidgety person? Were they tired that day? Bored? Impatient because they need to get the store before it closes and the photoshoot is taking a long time?

Imagine running this software on a photo of your parents. Do you think you would be impressed by the accuracy?

Could not agree more. I also maintain the unpopular opinion that speculatory colorization of black and white historical imagery is also doing damage to the accuracy of the general historical canon.

It’s a fair point but I think there’s a difference between some music group that owns the rights to Tupac’s likeness creating an image of him to sell more things and a family member wanting to see an deceased relative in motion.

But I take your point that it could be used in distasteful ways, much like how Tupac was used (IMO).

> seeing some moving video of my ancestors would be pretty neat

I've tested it and it only really works with high quality pics taken against a plain background. Otherwise your ancestors look like ghouls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com