Our closest competitor has a 1B dollar valuation with 55,000 clients (purportedly Fortune 500 companies) and DH's that aren't yet conversational or lightweight...makes you wonder what the future might hold for Unith
April 25, 2024 - 11:23 am
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.
Generated by an AI model that’s trained on footage of real actors, the avatars are built for video creation. 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,” Synthesia’s AI models infer the emotions within text. This determines the avatar’s tone of voice, body language, and facial expression.
“This is definitely the first iteration of avatars that can express emotions and understand the sentiment of the content,” said Victor Riparbe, Synthesia’s CEO and co-founder.
The avatars will also alwaysgenerate entirely new and unique outputs. Feed them the same script twice and they will respond with two different performances.In Synthesia’s words, they’ve evolved from “digital renders” to “digital actors.”
At a product demo on Monday, TNW got to review their acting chops.
AI avatars take the stage
To this humble critic’s eyes, Synthesia’s avatars are the best GenAI actors to ever perform on the screen.
The combination of photorealistic faces, emotional gestures, expressive voices, and synchronised movements brings a new level realism to the market.
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 haven’t escaped theuncanny valley. Their main shortcoming is a tendency to slightly exaggerate their emotions. As actors, they’re 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.
Ready for new roles
Synthesia, which reached unicorn status last year after raising $90mn (€84mn) at a $1bn (€932mn) valuation, claims that55,000 businesses — including halfof the Fortune 100 — are already customers. 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 they’ve 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. Thestartup’s tech has previously been used to product fake news in China,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. A combination of tech filters and human oversight provide moderation, new customers are vetted, and the platform is regularlyaudited. 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 haven’t lived up to theirsupposed threat.
Preparing for bigger parts
At Synthesia’s 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. The startup envisionsAIavatars roaming 3D offices, communicating with virtual humans, introducing us to new colleagues, finding meeting rooms, and teaching staff within the workspace.
But in the nearer future,Riparbehas a specific target in sight.
“The internal goal for the end of the year is that we can produce an Apple Keynote of someone walking and talking and that it feels and looks entirely real,” he said.
That might alarm one budding actor in particular. Tim Cook, your days on the stage could be numbered.
https://thenextweb.com/news/synthesia-unveils-expressive-avatars-ai
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