MyHeritage's DeepStory: A Genealogist's Reflection on a ByGone Tool

"DeepStory"

A funny thing happened on my way to adding a link to my DeepStory creation featuring one of my ancestors—it had vanished! I searched high and low, knowing I’d just added new photos and updated details for her to narrate on June 4th. This was all in my preparation for a presentation on using AI in genealogy and family history, I wanted to showcase it as a promising, creative way to share an ancestor’s story. But now I was facing the classic tech mystery: “Where did it go?”

So I reached out to Daniel Horowitz, the genealogy expert at MyHeritage, hoping he’d point me toward a workaround or hidden button I’d missed. Instead, his response came with a gentle letdown: "I am sorry to tell you the DeepStory feature was ‘sundown’ recently. If you created videos with it, you can find them under the profile of the person or the photo area. No new DeepStories can be created." It felt like losing a beloved tool from my storytelling toolbox—one that gave ancestors a voice, even if through synthesized speech and curated slideshows. The stories I’d helped shape weren’t gone, thankfully, but the chance to breathe new life into others had quietly closed behind a digital curtain.

Naturally, I was deeply upset. The possibility of revisiting my DeepStory through her profile offered a flicker of hope—a chance to reconnect with the voice and essence I had carefully crafted. But when I arrived at her page, I found only the script: the words she would have spoken, now stranded without breath or motion. The video itself had vanished. The disappointment settled in not just as a technical inconvenience, but as a personal loss and one I had recommended to fellow genealogists and shared with family. 

While on the profile page of my ancestor, I noticed MyHeritage had introduced the AI Biographer™. I gave it a try—hoping it might fill the void left by DeepStory. It did offer some intriguing insights and layered in historical context, which is always helpful, however, DeepStory allowed for a voice for our ancestors. I urge you revisit your creations. My heartfelt concern is that we were never notified. A tool with such emotional weight deserves a respectful farewell—not a silent vanishing. Technology many evolve, but the stories we craft deserve continuity and care. A simple notice and backup notice would have made all the difference. While we are grateful to have had the tool, we know that history doesn't vanish, it waits to be retold and we have to adapt to new ways of retelling it.