British tech startup Synthesia has unveiled a new range of AI-generated avatars that can convey emotions such as happiness, sadness and frustration.
synthesis
NvidiaThe Synthesia-backed artificial intelligence company on Thursday unveiled a new wave of AI-generated digital avatars that can convey human emotions using a user’s text input.
The company said its “Expressive Avatars” can blur the lines between the virtual world and real characters. The goal is to eliminate cameras, microphones, actors, lengthy editing and other costs from the professional video production process. Synthesia has a studio in London where actors read scripts in front of a green screen to train the system.
In a demonstration, the company showed how three lines of text were inserted into its platform – “I am happy. I’m sad. “I’m frustrated” – to which the AI-generated actor in the video responded by reading out the text in the tone of each corresponding emotion.
According to Synthesia, the company’s technology is used by more than 55,000 companies, including half of the Fortune 100, to create digital avatars for corporate presentations and training videos.
Founded in 2017, Synthesia raised $90 million last year at a valuation of around $1 billion. This makes the company one of the UK’s newer AI “unicorn” companies. Accel, Kleiner Perkins, GV, FirstMark Capital and MMC are also shareholders.
The company expressed concerns about how its videos could be used to create fake news content, saying publishers would have to sign up as corporate customers to create synthetic avatars. Content created using this technology is reviewed by moderators.
Synthesia does not publicly disclose pricing for its enterprise customers.
The company also requires all new customers to undergo a thorough “Know Your Customer” process, similar to that used in the banking industry, to help prevent malicious actors from creating fake company profiles to spread misinformation.
Synthesia said it is already preparing for the upcoming global elections and has implemented a number of controls to ensure that its platform is not abused by hostile actors seeking to manipulate the outcome of various votes.
The company is also part of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity – an organization of AI companies aimed at implementing content proof and digital “watermarking” of AI-generated content to ensure viewers know what You see, intelligence is manufactured artificially and not by a human being.
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2024-04-25 06:52:57
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