Do You Really Want to See Abraham Lincoln Smile?

OK folks, I don’t mind admitting that I am both just a little weirded out and really excited by this video. You can find it at the “History in Motion” channel on YouTube.

Here is how the channel describes its videos:

Step into the world of forgotten stories and moments that have stood the test of time. Through the power of advanced AI animation, we breathe new life into the past, transforming still images into intricate, dynamic experiences. Using cutting-edge neural networks and complex algorithms, we reconstruct and animate historical moments with stunning detail, creating a new dimension of reality where the past feels tangible and alive. Whether it’s capturing a slice of history, blending time periods, or revisiting classic moments, this channel is all about reawakening the beauty and depth of the world as it once was, offering a fresh perspective on things we thought we knew.

This is another example of how AI is changing how we consume history, but unlike last week’s example, here we can see how new technology can enhance primary sources like photographs.

But is it for better or for worse?

Consider the iconic photograph, likely taken on July 15, 1863 by Matthew Brady, of three Confederate prisoners taken at Gettysburg along Seminary Ridge. These men, like the roughly 2,500 prisoners taken were bound for POW camps in the North.

(Source: Library of Congress)

It’s a wonderful photographic study that sheds a great deal of light on the condition of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the summer of 1863. These men are well equipped and they appear defiant even in the face of a decisive battlefield defeat and looming imprisonment.

Most importantly, the appear to have wanted to be photographed.

The enhancement of this photograph, as with the others, is a reminder that these men moved. As silly as that sounds, I suspect that we sometimes lose sight of this obvious fact given the extent to which our visual references of the Civil War rely on photographs and other illustrations.

Not only are these three Confederates moving, they are also talking to one another.

I can easily imagine this technology allowing us to imagine what they might be saying to one another based on all the available evidence surrounding this photograph.

What other Civil War photographs might you want to see enhanced by this new technology?

I would love to see a photograph of soldiers training in the field enhanced as well as one of an entire company or regiment as they fall out of formation.

How about a postwar photograph of veterans?

We’ve all seen the iconic photograph of Confederate and Union veterans, shaking hands over the stone wall at Gettysburg’s “Bloody Angle, during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the battle.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Enhancement here might allow us to creatively explore how we choose to remember postwar events such as reunions. Are we looking at veterans, who have truly moved past old hatreds and have now come to embrace one another as fellow Americans or do we see more of a performance for the cameras?

What expressions can we imagine coming over their faces as the handshakes conclude and they begin to step away from one another?

Of course, there is a fine line between enhancements that help us to probe photographs like these more thoroughly and creatively and ways that turn history into pure fiction. I certainly don’t claim to have any answers.

It’s going to take all of us to exercise a healthy skepticism as we make our way through this ‘brave new world’ of AI.