News/Digital Humans
AI Influencer Kenza Layli Wins Inaugural Miss AI Crown
The Moroccan virtual influencer Kenza Layli has been crowned the first Miss AI by the World AI Creator Awards, marking a significant shift in how AI-powered digital personas engage with audiences and compete in traditionally human-dominated spheres. A new era of AI influencers: Kenza Layli's victory in the inaugural Miss AI beauty pageant sets a precedent for the growing role of AI influencers in the digital landscape: Layli, created by Moroccan company Phoenix AI, beat over 1,500 other virtual models, showcasing the increasing sophistication and appeal of AI-generated personas. The pageant evaluated participants on aesthetics, online influence, and technical proficiency,...
read Jul 12, 2024AI Beauty Pageant Sparks Outrage Over Unrealistic Standards and Objectification of Women
The first "Miss AI" contest, held by influencer platform Fanvue, has sparked controversy for promoting unrealistic beauty standards through AI-generated social media influencers. Key details of the contest: Fanvue's "Miss AI" pageant, part of the "World AI Creator Awards," judged AI-generated social media influencers: The winner, Kenza Layli, is a fictional Instagram influencer from Morocco with over 200,000 followers, created by Myriam Bessa of the Phoenix AI agency. The contest awarded cash prizes to the creators of the top three AI-generated influencers, with Bessa receiving $5,000 for Layli's first-place win. CNN covered the event, seemingly referring to the AI-generated images...
read Jul 10, 2024Suspiciously Smooth-Skinned Politician Denies Being an AI Bot, Blames Pneumonia and Photoshop
Mark Matlock, a candidate for the far-right Reform UK party, has confirmed he is a real person despite suspicions that he might be an AI-generated bot. Background and speculation: Matlock's absence from key campaign events and his unusually smooth skin in a campaign image led to speculation on social media that he might not be a real person: A thread on X (formerly Twitter) questioned Matlock's existence, suggesting a potential scandal if he turned out to be an AI bot. While an AI-generated candidate ran for UK Parliament this election, the possibility of Matlock being AI-generated seemed plausible given the...
read Jul 9, 2024Digital Twins Poised to Revolutionize AI Across Industries, from Healthcare to Urban Planning
Digital twins, virtual models of humans and objects, will be a major driving force of AI applications across industries, from healthcare to urban planning. The digital twin boom: As AI technology advances, companies are investing billions in creating digital twins to unlock new insights and opportunities: The market for digital twins is projected to skyrocket from $35 billion in 2023 to $379 billion by 2034, according to Gartner, with the healthcare industry driving much of this growth. Digital twins can range from statistical models of complex systems like organisms or weather patterns to video avatars of individuals trained on their...
read Jul 5, 2024WhatsApp’s New AI Avatars Will Set it Apart from OpenAI and Google
WhatsApp's anticipated AI avatar feature would allow users to create virtual representations of themselves to place in AI-generated images, potentially setting it apart from competitors like Google and OpenAI that have been reluctant to offer such capabilities. Key details of WhatsApp's AI avatar feature: The messaging service is developing a feature that would let users upload photos of themselves to generate an AI avatar that can be inserted into various virtual settings based on text prompts: Users would provide some reference photos and Meta's Llama AI model would create the avatars The feature is currently in beta testing for a...
read Jul 4, 2024WhatsApp Developing AI Avatar Generator for Personalized User Images in Various Settings
WhatsApp is developing a personalized AI avatar generator that will allow users to imagine themselves in various settings, from forests to outer space, using a combination of user photos, text prompts, and Meta's AI Llama model. Key details of the upcoming feature: The in-development "Imagine" AI feature was spotted in the latest WhatsApp Beta for Android and is expected to generate personalized avatars for users: Users will need to take photos of themselves once to train the Meta AI to produce images in their likeness. Avatars can be generated by typing "Imagine me" with a description of the setting in...
read Jul 1, 2024Character.AI Mulls Deals with Tech Giants Amid Intensifying AI Chatbot Competition
Chatbot startup Character.AI is considering potential deals with tech giants Google and Meta amid increasing competition in the AI chatbot space: Early success and hype: Character.AI had a strong start, attracting millions of users with its engaging, persona-based chatbots that offered a fun and unique conversational AI experience compared to larger rivals. Founded in November 2021 by former Google AI pioneers, the startup quickly gained traction, with users drawn to its hyper-realistic roleplay chatbots mimicking anime characters, TV personalities, and historical figures. Just four months after securing $150 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and others at a $1 billion...
read Jul 1, 2024AI’s Impact on Democracy: Virtual Candidates, Voter Influence, and Deepfake Risks in 2024 Elections
The rise of AI in politics raises important questions about the future of democracy, as AI-powered virtual candidates and voter influence through algorithms become more prevalent in 2024 elections worldwide. Virtual politicians on the ballot: AI-generated candidates and political parties are emerging in various countries, aiming to represent voter interests through data-driven policies: In the UK, "AI Steve" is an avatar created to interact with and formulate policies based on constituent input, though some remain skeptical of trusting AI politicians. Similar experiments have been conducted in New Zealand with "SAM" and in Russia with "Alisa," who ran against Vladimir Putin...
read Jun 28, 2024AI Game Characters Offer New Window into the Human Mind and Behavior
The way we interact with AI video game characters can shed light on how the human mind works and reveal insights into human behavior, cooperation, and relationships. Here is a summary of the key points: AI characters open up new avenues for studying the mind: AI-driven non-player characters (NPCs) in video games could enable neuroscientists and psychologists to probe more deeply into the mysteries of the human brain and behavior: Scientists have long used video games as research tools to study learning, navigation, decision-making and cooperation. AI characters could greatly expand the possibilities. Rich, immersive game worlds filled with realistic...
read Jun 26, 2024Google’s AI Chatbots to Mimic Celebrities, YouTubers, and Fictional Characters on YouTube
Google is reportedly developing AI chatbots that mimic celebrities, YouTube influencers, and fictional characters, potentially integrating them into YouTube to enhance user engagement and monetization opportunities. Key details of Google's AI chatbot plans: The report suggests Google is working on creating customizable AI chatbots that users can interact with and even build their own based on famous personalities: These chatbots will focus on replicating the personalities and responses of the celebrities or characters they are modeled after, going beyond task-specific AI like Google's recently released Gems. Google may incorporate these AI chatbots directly into YouTube, leveraging the platform's popular creators...
read Jun 25, 2024AI-Powered Game Characters: Unsettling Glimpse into Immersive Future, Despite Current Limitations
Chatting with an AI-powered NPC version of myself created by my colleagues provides an unsettling glimpse into the future of immersive video game characters, but also reveals the current limitations and challenges of this emerging technology. A mischievous and unpleasant digital doppelganger: My colleagues used tools from AI company Inworld to craft an NPC based on my personality, but the resulting character - King Fiall of Nirth - proved to be an extremely sarcastic and insufferable conversation partner: Despite tweaking personality sliders and providing key traits, goals, and utterances, King Fiall's responses were often over-the-top sarcastic and unpleasant, differing greatly...
read Jun 24, 2024TikTok’s AI Avatar Mishap: Hitler Quotes and Misinformation Raise Alarms
TikTok's AI digital avatar tool accidentally released without guardrails, allowing users to create misleading videos with paid actors reciting anything from Hitler quotes to dangerous misinformation. The incident raises concerns about the potential for abuse and the need for robust content moderation as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent on social media platforms. Key details of the incident: TikTok mistakenly posted a link to an internal version of its new AI digital avatar tool, which allowed users to generate videos without any content restrictions: CNN was able to create videos using the tool that contained quotes from Hitler, Osama bin Laden,...
read Jun 19, 2024TikTok’s AI Avatars Spark Creator Concerns and Raise Questions about Advertising’s Future
TikTok introduces generative AI avatars for ads and branded content, sparking questions about creator control and the future of advertising on the platform. Custom Avatars give creators control over their AI likeness: TikTok's new Custom Avatars allow creators to scale their likeness into multilingual avatars for global brand collaborations, while maintaining control over usage rights and rates: Creators can choose to create AI avatars based on their own likeness to expand their reach and brand partnerships across multiple languages. The Custom Avatar system is designed to give creators control over how their AI likeness is used, including setting their own...
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