A new photo animation tool is now available that brings the past to life with AI-powered "deep nostalgia" technology. And after trying it out, I was seriously freaked out.

The deep-fake-style tool from online genealogy company MyHeritage takes your old photos and uses machine learning to animate your facial expressions and movements in a really creepy way; you can download 10- to 20-second videos and share them with your family; you can even share them with your friends and family. [This type of technology can upset people, so it's always a good idea to check before using the images.

Using this service is very simple: go to the MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia page and click on the photo upload button or simply drag and drop the image.

The AI then spends about 20 seconds working its magic on the photo, and then surprises you with the finished result. Yes, it really is amazing. And spooky. At the same time.

I didn't know my mother as a child. But the images below are an unimaginably good representation of what my mother was like, far more so than the still images.

Next, I tried with a photo of myself as a young man. This time, the AI seemed to catch my eye a bit, adding to the eeriness but weakening the impact a bit. There is definitely something like a moving portrait of Harry Potter.

You can also use this tool on photos with multiple people in them. The technology analyzes the image and asks which face to animate. Here is me as a baby. My mother is in the background, but the AI successfully animates me while keeping her still.

This service is initially free as long as you sign up for a MyHeritage account. All you have to do is enter your email address and a few other details and agree to the MyHeritage terms of service.

However, with a free account you can only animate 5 photos, and each video will be watermarked. Signing up for a complete account (currently $16.58/month) will give you unlimited access to the tool and downloads without watermarks.

The technology behind the Deep Nostalgia tool is the work of D-ID, an Israeli company specializing in "reproduction technology"; MyHeritage previously used it to animate a photo of Abraham Lincoln.

Using actual human gestures captured from MyHeritage employees to animate the photos, the company noted that the end result was "not the real thing, but a technical simulation of how the person in the photo would have moved and looked had he or she been captured on video . that would have moved and looked the way they would have if the person in the photograph had been videotaped."

The company also cautions that "depending on the video and angle, it may be necessary to technically simulate parts of the image that are not in the original photo, such as teeth or ears, and the quality of the final result may vary."

The tool spread quickly in the first few days after its launch and, as expected, received mixed reactions: as MyHeritage itself says, "Some people think the Deep Nostalgia™ feature is magical, while others find it creepy and hate it."

I find it both magical and creepy. There is no doubt that there is some very clever technology behind this feature, and the end result is fascinating. But it is also unsettling to see something that you know is not real, but looks so real.

If you are interested in trying it out yourself, go to the MyHeritage site.