Nottinghamshire/England: Conversational video tech allowed the late Marina Smith to answer mourners’ questions via recordings.

Mrs Smith died in June, aged 87, but video technology, built by her son's firm, meant those attending her funeral could watch her respond to their questions about her life.

The use of the technology at Mrs Smith's funeral was firstMr Smith, the chief executive and co-founder of StoryFile, told the BBC the technology meant, once a person had died, it was possible to have a conversation with them "as if they are there, and they will answer you".

So how does it work?Rollo Carpenter, who created the chatbot CleverBot - and has no connection to Mr Smith's company StoryFile - said the system was not trying to construct its own replies and was not using AI to invent answers.

Mrs Smith co-founded the National Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, from where she ran a successful Holocaust education programme. She was awarded an MBE in 2005 for her work.

To make a conversational video, a person must make a recording while still alive, answering numerous questions about their life.

Later, after that person's death, an AI system selects appropriate clips to play in response to questions from people viewing a remembrance video; the person in the video appears to listen and reply.

Rollo Carpenter, who created the chatbot CleverBot - and has no connection to Mr Smith's company StoryFile - said the system was not trying to construct its own replies and was not using AI to invent answers.

"It's just selecting from a pre-recorded set of sequences and cleverly allowing people to cause them to be played," he said.

Mrs Smith co-founded the National Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, from where she ran a successful Holocaust education programme. She was awarded an MBE in 2005 for her work.

The founders of StoryFile hit upon the idea for the company while working on creating interactive holograms of Holocaust survivors for the USC Shoah Foundation.