London
CNN
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Scroll through DJ and aspiring model Dex’s Instagram account and you’ll see her donning new outfits, performing at shows around the world, and chatting about her hobbies with her thousands of followers.
However, it’s clear that something is different about Dex. She is a completely virtual “digital human” designed by a British startup.
In her performances, Dex appears as a video screen or holographic projection with a human-created mix. She is animated using a combination of her Unreal Engine, a 3D modeling software widely used in video games, and motion capture. Her generative artificial intelligence allows her to remember information and respond to questions using voice, also generated by her AI.
“She’s probably one of the only digital humans you can talk to and interact with in a performance space,” says Dennis Harris, CCO of startup Sum Vivas. “You can ask her anything. She’s a genius when it comes to music.”
Last month, Dex appeared at Digital Fashion Week in New York, Paris, and Milan, modeling Prada and Louis Vuitton outfits at digital fashion events.
For Liverpool-based Sam Vivas, she is the “eyeball” for more practical applications. The company is currently developing a digital human that can “listen” to people’s questions and converse with them in real time. Shellie can provide product information as an avatar on a company’s website, and Arif can act as a multilingual concierge on screens at the airport, guiding passengers and answering questions.
According to CEO and founder Rob Sims, digital humans help bridge the gap between AI technology and humans. “What we’ve found is that when people start working with digital humans or start conversations with digital humans, they quickly suspend their mistrust,” Sims told CNN. “It becomes natural.”
Since the announcement of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, there has been considerable hype about the potential of generative AI. Generative AI is artificial intelligence that can leverage vast information datasets to generate conversational text output.
Investment in generative AI has reached record levels, with more than $21 billion poured into the industry in the first nine months of last year, according to data insights firm Pitchbook. In March 2023, Google launched Bard (recently renamed Gemini), and around the same time Anthropic released its AI assistant Claude. As generative AI chatbots become increasingly popular, Sum Vivas is one of several companies trying to make chatbots more human.
U.S. and New Zealand-based UneeQ has developed animated conversational “digital humans” that can be used as virtual salespeople and customer service agents on corporate websites, and this month launched an animated flight attendant Summer 2.0 to answer questions on Qatar Airways. I made my debut. ” website and app.
Microsoft recently announced that users of its Azure software will now be able to create lifelike avatars that can turn text prompts into animated voices. However, there are growing concerns about the impact of AI on the job market.
“When we rely on automated tools, what skills are we losing in the process?” asks Jennifer Ding, a senior research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national data science and artificial intelligence institute. . “In some ways, we see AI as something that can help us or enhance our work,” she says. “But at the same time, there is a growing fear that they will be replaced.”
But Harris points to new opportunities in the design and development of digital humans. “In every scenario we find ourselves in, we are creating jobs and working in harmony with people, rather than taking jobs away,” she says.
“Digital humans first and foremost need to collaborate with other human colleagues,” adds Sims. “We are moving to a stage where digital humans start to become just members of teams, bringing further benefits to those teams and obviously to the customers they serve.”
