The speed of AI progress is incredible. Until late last year, most of us thought AI wouldn’t be useful individually for a few years yet. Then ChatGPT, powered by GPT-3 technology, hit, followed soon by GPT-4, and suddenly he’s surrounded by artificial intelligence that can boost his productivity.
One of the most interesting is the video synthesis AI model by DeepBrain AI. This model creates a digital twin of a human and is increasingly capable of taking on tasks that a mirrored human would normally have to do.
This week, let’s talk about the emergence of useful human digital twins. Finally, I’ll end with my product of the week, the Motorola ThinkPhone from Lenovo. It’s a smartphone that addresses one of the computer industry’s biggest mistakes in Apple’s response to the iPhone.
Video Synthesis AI Model
Initially focused on newscaster talent, DeepBrain AI is the first digital twin of a human I’ve seen that can perform tasks indistinguishably from how humans do them.
A digital twin is created by learning from a large number of news videos to allow it to create a database of knowledge about the human presenter’s behavior, habits, speech, and movements.
A script can be fed into the resulting digital twin, and from that script it will function just like a news presenter. Digital twins will not replace human talent. In general, whenever a news service uses this avatar, talent is compensated primarily for short-format teasing of breaking news and upcoming live programming.
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A news service may find that viewers are looking at AI-generated avatars. Where this technology is already in use, it is embraced by news audiences and talent.
The reason news talent is happy with this is that they get paid when their avatar is used. With avatars, talent no longer needs to drive to the studio to record live short segments, updates, or announcements. she needs to go back to the studio.
Therefore, avatars should not undermine their income, but rather complement human work by reducing human burden and associated aggravation, all of which should improve job satisfaction.
Avatar use case
While most of the initial use cases for this technology were for video news programs where avatars and newspersons were indistinguishable (examples from Asia), other uses include:
- A bank virtual kiosk that appears to be talking to a human, but instead chatting with an AI
- One-way training videos that run from written scripts
- Hotel virtual concierge for restaurant reservations, show tickets, and more
- Interactive videos that make you feel like you’re talking to a live person
Some of these avatars were not real people. They were computer-generated, highly realistic images.
Creating this short-form content with a real person typically costs about $4,000, while doing the same with a computer-generated avatar only costs about $100.
Avatars require no rehearsal and work without distractions from written scripts, such as illness and the conflicts and behavioral problems normally associated with living talent.
Given that avatars work from text, they can be controlled by other AIs such as ChatGPT or IBM’s Watson. This creates a level of human-like interactive content that allows many people to believe they are talking to a live person.
Another application that has been explored is celebrity advocacy.
Celebrities do not scale well when using celebrities as endorsers as the ability for individuals to chat with celebrities is almost non-existent. can interact with
As mentioned, the technology can scan real people and artistically created characters, so companies like McDonald’s (Ronald McDonald’s), Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Jack in the Box are still alive. It solves some of the problems I had with using a person with This is to prevent actors from becoming too attached to their characters to be replaced.
With digitally created avatars, when the company owns the virtual actors and removes the human from the mix, the problem caused by the human disappears.
Human-virtual digital twins – what lies beyond
DeepBrain’s current focus is not to replace most people, but to enhance them. However, the use of fully synthetic avatars that have nothing to do with humans is more of an alternative than an augmented model. Initially focused on short-form content, nothing prevents technology from eventually moving to feature-length productions such as TV shows and movies.
The surrealistic nature of avatars can be improved with additional training and technological advances, even in the long form. Even the amalgamation of people becomes indistinguishable from real humans.
Given the significant cost advantages of using virtually created content over live action, the potential for such technology to disrupt the media industry is enormous. is not just the cost of human resources. It also reduces the overall cost of the studio where the talent is performing.
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GPT-4 has already done some interesting work with scripts and stories, making it an excellent choice for creating fully photorealistic movies and TV shows that are entirely created by AI dynamically based on user preferences. You can put this on your roadmap.
Ultimately, rather than watching the same TV shows and movies as everyone else, this technology will be combined with generative AI to create customized videos at scale, putting you and your family in the lead role. You can (with your permission, of course). ).
Of course, you can also share these videos on social media with people interested in what others have created. As a result, a large amount of unique content may be created that the Service must analyze and present to potential customers around the world.
summary
Being able to create twins to do some of the work DeepBrain AI is currently focusing on is game-changing. But if we could do the same thing with synthetic images, it would greatly disrupt all forms of entertainment, especially for long-form content. Reddit content has been doing this for a while, but most users don’t seem to care.
From in-game non-player characters (NPCs) that look like real people, to being able to build entire virtual sports teams with accurate representations of real, imaginary, and even dead players, everything is on the table may be in This hints at the level of confusion we’re just starting to see.
In short, determining what is real and what is not is already difficult and will only get harder. While this may be a good thing when it comes to entertainment, it can have far more problematic effects when it comes to our ability to see the truth.
Motorola Lenovo ThinkPhone
One of the biggest mistakes the computer industry made was going all the way to the iPhone. Ironically, the industry initially didn’t believe in consumer-centric smartphones. Then, rather than counteract the trend on its merits, it tried to turn the tide with the iPhone, transforming Apple from latecomer to market leader overnight.
This wasn’t the first time it happened. Decades ago, IBM largely abandoned the mainframe in an attempt to convert to client/server computing. This put IBM, the clear market leader, out of business after just a few years.
Today, there is an underserved market when it comes to business smartphones. I once spoke with the then-CEO of Bank of America. He wanted something as secure and business-focused as his BlackBerry used to be, but he was frustrated that no one had built such a device.
Well, Lenovo has fixed that with the iconic ThinkPhone.
Motorola’s Lenovo ThinkPhone (Image credit: Lenovo)
Built from IBM’s ThinkPad business-focused brand, the ThinkPhone has similar dimensions to the iPhone, but wraps it up with some unique business-focused features.
These features are:
- Instant Connect: Seamlessly detect when your phone and PC are nearby and connect via Wi-Fi.
- Integrated Clipboard: Paste copied text, recent photos, scanned documents, and videos into any app on the destination device and seamlessly transfer between devices.
- Integrated notifications: Phone notifications appear instantly in Windows Action Center. Clicking on a notification will automatically launch the corresponding phone app on your PC screen.
- File drop: Easily drag and drop files between ThinkPhone and PC.
- App Streaming: Open Android applications directly on your PC.
- Advanced webcam: Take advantage of the powerful ThinkPhone camera and AI capabilities to seamlessly use it as a webcam for all your video calls. Why buy another webcam when your phone already has a great camera?
- Instant Hotspot: Connect to the internet directly from your PC with one click and take advantage of ThinkPhone’s 5G connectivity. This is huge and may reduce the need and cost of his WAN capabilities in PCs.
Like the ThinkPad, the ThinkPhone is wrapped in security and certified to Military Standard 810H (MIL-STD-810H ) has been tested. Made of Gorilla Glass.
ThinkPhone is water resistant to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. There is also a red button for launching important applications. I usually choose cameras that I need to access quickly. It may also be used to reimplement push-to-talk for law enforcement, security, and other uses where instant communication is important (this is supported by the Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie app).
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Designed to accept remote management, ThinkPhone can be centrally configured and managed to ensure device security and prevent improper use, a typical requirement for business-oriented computing devices. ThinkPhone has a unique processor called Moto Secure that separates PINs, passwords and encryption keys and keeps them in a tamper-proof environment to prevent access by malicious individuals.
ThinkPhone comes with its own ultra-small 68W universal charger that charges your phone in minutes. It’s also strong enough to power most business laptops and other USB-C devices (but not gaming machines or workstations).
Finally, the phone has a high-quality 50 MP camera, whether you’re shooting private events, for insurance investigators or anyone else who needs to produce a high-quality record. But it should cover most photography needs.
The ThinkPhone is my product of the week, filling the business phone void that has existed since BlackBerry and Palm left the market.
