2wai, an AI startup founded by actor Calum Worth and Hollywood producer Russell Geyser, comes out of stealth with the launch of the first app. The duo claims that the app, essentially a proof of concept of 2wai technology, provides an efficient way to create realistic conversation avatars that fans can chat with.
The early release version of the 2wai (pronounced “two-way”) app allows users to talk to William Shakespeare and create characters created by 2wai, such as Luka (personal chef), Celeste (astrologer), and Darius (personal trainer). According to 2WAI, the AI version of App: Calum Worthy allows you to add more “celebrities, personalized assistants, cultural icons, superheroes and more” to your app every week. Future versions of the 2WAI app will allow users to create their own digital twins, according to the company.
“I worked as an actor, writer and producer for the past 20 years, so I experienced firsthand how challenging it can be to develop meaningful relationships with fans around the world,” Worthy said. “The launch of 2WAI allows for a completely new experience that is as authentic as the holo avatar we created.”
Worthy, a Canadian actor who appeared in the Disney Channel series “Austin & Ally,” the Netflix series “American Vandal,” and Hulu's “The Act,” is the co-founder and head of business development of 2wai. He and Geiser were researching the company during the 2023 actor's strike. According to Worthy, “There was an urgent need for creators and individuals to have an agency through their own portraits.
“2wai really brings control back to the artist's hands,” Worthy said. “This allows them to attract 24-7s without always getting online. This platform allows for this one-to-one human-like connection.”
Worthy said he uses his avatar as “sharing stories and information he has never shared before” in his 2WAI app, including behind-the-scenes stories from his Disney era. “I treat this as a living diary,” he said.
Check out 2wai's Sizzle Reel.
The founder of 2wai says that the AI avatar approach is different from generic chatbots like Openai's ChatGpt. 2wai characters can't talk about anything under the sun. Instead, they have a limited set of pre-approved information that can be discussed (the approach 2WAI calls “Fedbrain”). This allows you to handle 2WAI Holo Avatar interactions on your device rather than on the cloud. This provides “infinite scalability at a small cost.”
“We can do that with most money to animate characters and people and have real-time conversations,” said Geyser, CEO of 2wai.
Knowing it's worth it for over a decade, Geiser counts production credits such as “Catch the Murderer,” “Stowey,” and “An Honest Thief.” He said 2WAI has raised $5 million in “pre-seed” funding for friends and family and currently employs 24 engineers and nine business development staff.
IBM has asked 2WAI to animate former CEO Thomas J. Watson at its UK headquarters in London. Additionally, 2WAI technology is used at UK telecoms in more than 300 UK schools, allowing students to talk to Shakespeare's Holo Avatar and ask questions about his work.
2wai's “Fedbrain” approach ensures that the avatar “can only say what we told you about it. It's a closed dataset,” Geyser said.
Geiser said 2wai isn't fishing to compete with the AI giants who spend billions on R&D. Rather, the 2wai is combined with the installed guardrails with the “can become the face” of the underlying large-scale language model (LLM). He said the company collaborated with LLMS from Meta, Google and Openai.
The beta version of the 2WAI app is available on iOS via Apple's TestFlight app at this link. The initial version of the 2wai app is free, but at one point the company plans to introduce a premium version with celebrities and influencer Holovatal, which is “a few dollars a month,” Geiser said.
The company will host a pop-up studio in LA (8215 Melrose Ave.) from June 28th to July 27th, allowing visitors to create their own 2wai Avatar for free. Each avatar capture takes 10-15 minutes. For more information, please visit the company's website (2wai.ai).
