'Love, Rendered': Recreating Memories with the Help of AI

A new documentary short film called 'Love, Rendered' explores the power of storytelling and memory loss. The film follows Burt and Ethelle Shatz, a couple married for over 70 years, as they navigate Burt's cognitive decline.

Burt and Ethelle's story revolves around their meeting at a student co-op in Cleveland, which wasn't photographed or filmed. This left only memories of the event in their minds. To recreate this unrecorded past, filmmakers partnered with Google DeepMind engineers to use AI technology.

The team used generative models to restore black-and-white photos of Burt and Ethelle from their youth. They also used performance capture models to map Burt and Ethelle's present-day mannerisms onto their younger likenesses. This allowed the recreation to come alive, making it feel authentic.