The dawn of the virtual humans is upon us
Virtual humans — lifelike replicas of people that are indistinguishable from the real thing — have been a science fiction staple for decades. Think the stuttering weirdness of Max Headroom in the 80s, Blade Runner 2049’s Joi or even the floating head of the dysfunctional Holly from Red Dwarf.
And thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and processing power, technology companies now say they are at the point where they can create photo-realistic imitations of human beings that can move, talk and smile with such authenticity that it is impossible to tell they are computer generated.
On Tuesday, Neon, a highlyanticipated venture funded by Samsung, unveiled an “artificial human”, which it claimed was capable of displaying emotions and intelligence. The company said its creations would “exhibit human capabilities” such as speaking, learning and even being able to form new memories.
If further evidence was needed of Silicon Valley’s God complex, Neon’s founder, former Samsung executive Pranav Mistry, said the synthetic humans represented a “new kind of life”. “There are millions of species on our planet and we hope to add one more. Neons will be our friends, collaborators and companions, continually learning, evolving and forming memories from their interactions,” he said.
Mistry’s claims are bold, to say the least, especially as Neon has thus far been purposefully vague about how its artificial humans actually work. But the company seems adamant that this project is more than just Alexa with a CGI face, claiming that it can recognise different people and can respond to questions in “milliseconds”.
This rise of synthetic video has led to questions about whether it could be used to deceive viewers in a way that goes beyond the altered “deepfake” videos that have already been used for political purposes.
And like many technological advances, Neon is out to take jobs. The company says its creations will be used for video customer service, and in the future replace financial advisers, GPs, teachers and news anchors.
The company also expects them to become virtual companions and will start working with businesses on introducing them later this year.
Social media and technology companies have spent the last year grappling with “deepfakes”, videos that have been digitally manipulated to make a subject — such as a highranking politician — appear as if they are doing or saying something else. On Tuesday, Facebook banned deepfakes, saying they were likely to “mislead” the average viewer.
But while deepfakes involve taking a video and altering it, often for sinister reasons, synthetic humans represent a new type of challenge, because they are completely artificially generated. In 2018, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua broadcast using what it said was the first AI-generated news anchor. Although few would say it could pass as a human, that could soon change.
Oren Aharon, the chief executive of Hour One, a company that generates synthetic avatars for use in advertising and e-commerce, says neither humans nor deepfake detection technology can discern its videos from the real thing.
A subject’s likeness is captured in a studio in a process taking 20 minutes and, from there, AI can generate new videos of the person realistically speaking, laughing and making facial expressions, merely by feeding it text and configuring a personality. The company says it eventually wants the process to take two minutes using a consumer smartphone.
This rise of synthetic video has led to questions about whether it could be used to deceive viewers in a way that goes beyond the altered “deepfake” videos that have already been used for political purposes.
Hour One says it requires all of its videos to carry an “altered visuals” disclaimer saying that it contains computer-generated footage.
The company also says it gives the real people from whom it creates its likenesses the chance to choose what kind of videos their digital replicas appear in and that its licences to use an individual’s likeness expire after four years.
“We have a great technology that can save time and cost but you need to do it in a responsible way,” says Aharon. Others might not be so upstanding.