TED Radio Hour The future of our memories
27 snips
Jan 30, 2026 
Chance Kokenauer, a digital archaeologist who 3D scans endangered heritage. Amy Kurzweil, a cartoonist who built a chatbot from her grandfather’s archives. Pau Aleikum-Garcia, a technologist creating AI 'synthetic memories' for displaced communities. They discuss AI-made memories, chatbots from archives, 3D scanning of ruined monuments, ethical limits, cultural bias, and uses for migration and dementia.
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Refugee Woman Sparks Synthetic Memories
- Pau Aleikum-Garcia heard a refugee elder fear her grandchildren would "be refugees forever" without photos or diaries.
- That conversation sparked his work creating AI-based synthetic memories to visually reconstruct lost personal pasts.
Turning Descriptions Into Visual Memories
- Synthetic memories turn text or oral descriptions into images using generative AI.
- They provide a visual form of subjective memory when original photos or documents are missing.
Carmen's Balcony Memory Recreated
- Carmen, a 90-year-old, described standing on a balcony seeing her imprisoned father, which Pau's team rendered into a black-and-white, painterly image.
- Seeing that externalized image relieved her burden and let her share the memory with family.
