Trump’s social media legacy means politicians ban For digital twins
AI developer Soul Machines is introducing tech to create virtual copies of humans, but its Kiwi creator tells Geraden Cann why he won’t let politicians use it.
Auckland-based AI developer Soul Machines will not allow politicians to use its newest digital twin technology. Company co-founder Greg Cross says that’s because it wants to avoid the kind of damage done via social media by the likes of Donald Trump.
The ability to make digital clones is part of the company’s new Human Operating System 2.0. The system also expands the company’s AI characters’ ability to use their bodies and hands, and interact with objects around them.
The digital twins can be designed to look like the real person behind them, and trained to act and respond as they would.
Trials of the tech have already been undertaken with rapper Will. I.Am and NBA basketballer Carmelo Anthony.
The twins are intended to allow celebrities to connect with fans and, in the case of Anthony, potentially to attract new sponsors.
However, Cross says Soul Machines has drawn a line in the sand and politicians and certain industries – including weapons and tobacco – will be barred from using the tech.
‘‘It can be incredibly helpful to help us stay in touch with friends and family around the world, but we’ve also seen how it can be used incredibly badly, to disrupt the fundamentals of our democracy even.
‘‘We can’t afford to ... allow AI to develop in the same way social media developed.’’
Twitter and Facebook were utilised by former US president Donald Trump to create a political movement millions-strong and spread misinformation about election rigging and damaging conspiracy theories.
He was only deplatformed by the tech giants after Trumpsupporting insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
Cross told the Sunday StarTimes he was determined not to make the same mistakes, and was already in discussions with the Government about what rules should govern AI.
Christoph Bartneck is an associate professor and director of postgraduate studies at the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab at Canterbury University.
He said AI-driven virtual people were still a long way from being able to hold a real conversation, and movement, particularly around the mouth and teeth, still gave most animations away.
However, Bartneck said it was important to be forward-looking when it came to AI regulation. He said deep fakes – the digital manipulation of video to make politicians appear to act or speak a certain way – presented a possible larger threat than digital twins.
Digital twins may eventually give stars and companies increased access to international markets. NBA player Carmelo Anthony’s twin might speak Mandarin, Cross said, creating appeal in China, one of the NBA’s biggest emerging markets.
Cross was not able to show Anthony’s digital twin due to a non-disclosure agreement, but said the potential of such novelties could be immense. ‘‘The experiences become much more personal and that changes the economics of the person experience, which is going to be really, really important in the competitiveness of any industry you can think of in the future.’’
Prior to the release of Human OS 2.0, Soul Machine’s creation only existed from the neck up – now they will also have torsos and arms, allowing them to gesture and interact with items on their screen.
‘‘The awareness of the digital world in which the digital people exist becomes more and more important as we move from the 2D worlds to the 3D worlds of the future,’’ Cross said.
Soul Machines has already created digital people for brands, including a virtual cooking coach for Nestle´ Toll House.
Ruth is able to talk customers through baking cookies, offer ‘‘cookie first aid’’ for those who repeatedly mess up, and outline alternatives for those wishing to change recipes or go gluten-free.
Cross said most clients currently designed just one digital person to act as the company’s AI face, but there was the potential for much more specific tailoring.
Just as Google and Facebook targeted advertising depending on search history, clicks and engagement, Soul Machines could create digital people to appeal to an individual.
For instance, this might mean constructing people that are the same race or sex as the viewer.
This is helped by another feature of Human OS 2.0, which allows the rapid creation of new AI people via a video-game-like character design tool.
‘‘People can talk to an African American brand ambassador, or a brand ambassador of the same age they are, or they may want to talk to a female brand ambassador as opposed to a male,’’ Cross said.
‘‘It goes even further, they may want to talk to a brand ambassador in Mandarin rather than English. All of these variables come into play in terms of the ability to personalise that brand experience.’’
Cross said a fundamental rule for Soul Machines was that customers had to be made aware they were talking to a digital person. This will become increasingly important as natural language tech and graphics improve, potentially making AI indistinguishable from a real person.
‘‘If machines are going to become a larger and larger part of our lives we want to be able to relate to them and trust them. You can’t establish a position of trust or any kind of relationship if you’re pretending to be something you’re not.’’
A range of technologies had to come together to reach the point where an interaction was like a real conversation, but Cross expected this could be achieved.
Google, Facebook and San Francisco-based Open AI are looking at how language generation platforms could create natural human conversations from data created by their own platforms. ‘‘We are starting to see early prototypes of that at this point in time, and we are starting to attach our digital people to those types of engines to see how good it is.’’