This YouTube video shows a performance by the late singer and superstar Michael Jackson in 2018 - nine years after his death! And of course it is not Michael Jackson, but a technology-supported avatar. Another variant in the form of a 3D hologram can be seen in this video.
If you can imagine the visual possibilities in combination with the incredible developments in the field of natural language ( Demo Google Voice Assistant 2018 ), it quickly becomes clear what incredible potential lies dormant here.
But what happened here? Michael Jackson's head was virtually mounted on an actor - an extremely complex approach that was only recently perfected. Old images are cleverly modified so that they match the rest of the character's movements and also take into account the subtleties of facial movements while speaking. The same can be done with speech. With a little practice (already shown in the first part of this series using the example of Lyrebird), AI models for individualized speech can be created, which then, in combination with the modified images described above, allow the desired person to be artificially reproduced. Although it is far from perfect, this technology is already extremely suitable for mass use.
Multiple identity, virtual immortality – and their consequences
All of these techniques are based on extremely powerful machine bc data learning models. However, all of these techniques are still in their infancy. But at least virtually, we may soon no longer die. Reason enough to think about our own identity or that of our brand.
From the perspective of corporations, it is to be expected that their planning reality will become many times more complex. This is because the understanding of the (potential) customer that has only been laboriously developed to date will now become many times more ambiguous due to new multiple identities:
What if the customer avatar responds positively to the advertising message, but the real person does not buy the product?
What significance will virtual influencers and real influencers with virtual avatars have?
But the perception of the company by the customer is also becoming more difficult, as in the future they will also be represented externally by AI to an increasing extent. Many companies are already relying on AI-supported bots in the sales and support areas: programs that use complex models to respond to questions, enable friendly communication and quick responses. The aim is to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The challenge here will be to do this consistently and with high and consistent quality.
If this is not guaranteed, such an approach can quickly backfire. For example, the racist bot called Tay , which Microsoft released for a field test a little too quickly, only to shut it down again even more quickly. More questions remained unanswered than was desired.