Avatars could well be the next big thing in AI space

Every business has that employee it couldn’t stand to lose. The outstanding one. The one you joke about cloning. Well, the joke might one day be on us as the artificial intelligence boom gathers speed. And digital clones — avatars by another name — present a world of business, economic, scientific and artistic opportunities, even as they also raise a host of ethical questions.

Avatars could well be the next big thing in the AI space, with avariety of industries eyeing them to boost productivity, cut costs and streamline operations including training, customer support, sales and communications. Investors have taken notice, with VC money pouring into what’s predicted to become a $527 billion industry by the end of the decade. London-based synthetic media platform Synthesia, is among the leaders, having raised $50 million and developed “human” avatars for over 15,000 companies, including McDonald’s Corp. , Accenture Plc and the UK’s National Health Service.

Avatars can create greater efficiencies within an organization and be used to replace documents and presentations with more engaging videos, said a spokeswoman at Synthesia. At a cost of about $1,000 per avatar, the London-based firm even created a synthetic David Beckham, a copy of the former football star able to speak nine languages.
Google-backed Runway and Deep Voodoo, popular for its special effects in a Kendrick Lamar music video, are also producing AI-powered human avatars.

There is potentially a dark side, given the speed of technological advance and the almost complete absence of regulation or ethical guidelines. At risk of turning into “deep fake” machines, there is already a worrying history of such platforms releasing propaganda or outright lies, without accountability. Synthesia said it strengthened its regulations this year after one of its avatars was associated with the spread of misinformation. Bloomberg