A British startup today unveiled new AI humans that blur the line between the virtual and the real.
Synthesia calls the digital beings Expressive Avatars.
Theypromise the most realistic emotional expressions on the market.
Users simply enter a text prompt and the synthetic humans read them out on a screen.
The photorealistic renders are certainly impressive.
But what makes them unique is their capacity to convey human feelings.
Using a technique called automatic sentiment prediction, Synthesias AI models infer the emotions within text.
This determines the avatars tone of voice, body language, and facial expression.
The avatars will also alwaysgenerate entirely new and unique outputs.
At a product demo on Monday, TNW got to review their acting chops.
Given an upbeat script, the avatars delivered a smile and energetic tone.
When fed sadder lines, they offered a sombre inflection and slower speech.
However, their performances still havent escaped theuncanny valley.
Their main shortcoming is a tendency to slightly exaggerate their emotions.
As actors, theyre closer to D-list soap stars than Academy Award winners.
Another drawback is that their movements are confined to the head, face, and shoulders.
As long as that remains the case, they will probably only pose a threat to newsreaders.
Despite these limitations, the avatars have the potentialto unlock new applications.
They typically use the platform to create videos for training, presentations, marketing, and customer service.
With the new avatars on board, Synthesia plans to expand the use cases.
Promotional videos could get an energy boost.
Customer support avatars could add a friendly touch.
Healthcare providers could bring empathy to presentations on sensitive topics.
All these emotions are, of course, artificial, but theyve become increasingly realistic.
The added realism, however, creates risks.
As avatarsbecoming increasingly indistinguishable from real humans, their capacity to spread disinformation grows.
Synthesia has already been exploited for that purpose.
Thestartupstech has previously been used to product fake news inChina,Venezuela, and Mali.
In response, Synthesia has banned accounts, introduced new rules, and upgraded digital defences.
Over 60 forms of content are now prohibited or restricted.
Over 10% of the company is dedicated to trust and safety-related work, Synthesia said.
As the world prepares for thebiggest elections in human history, concerns about deepfakes are growing.
Thus far, however, digital humans havent lived up to theirsupposed threat.
Preparing for bigger parts
At Synthesias London HQ, the avatars are eyeing more legitimate roles.
Their latest performances are just a first glimpse of what this model is capable of,Riparbe said.
He expects a 10x improvement in their capabilities this year.
Eventually, Synthesia plans to digitise the entire workplace experience.
But in the nearer future,Riparbehas a specific target in sight.
That might alarm one budding actor in particular.
Tim Cook, your days on the stage could be numbered.
One of the themes of this years TNW Conference is Ren-AI-ssance: The AI-Powered Rebirth.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he e(show all)Thomas is the managing editor of TNW.
He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers.
Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse).
