Synthesia now allows you to create AI avatar displays using a webcam

Synthesia, a British artificial intelligence startup, showed off several new product updates on Monday, including the ability to shape your own personalized Apple-style key displays with AI avatars using just a computer webcam or your phone.

Seven year old company, which is sponsored by NVIDIASaid new product updates will grow it into an omnichannel video creation suite for larger companies, Instead of just a platform that empowers customers to create AI-generated avatars.

Some of the new updates being launched by Synthesia include the ability to create an AI avatar using a webcam or telephone, “full body” avatars with arms and hands, and a display screen recording device that displays an AI avatar that guides you. Is. Staring.

Synthesia, which it says owes almost a portion of the Fortuna 500, uses AI avatars for a variety of tasks.

These could range from developing customized training films to guide workers around certain processes, or creating promotional content that can be shown through video rather than e-mail or alternative text communications. .

However, this does not happen all the time. According to co-founder and CEO Victor Ripperbelly, within the first three years of the company’s story, Synthesia really started trying to sell its generation to Hollywood companies and big-budget video production companies. The company pioneered laptop viewing for AI dubbing devices, which made mouth movements for different languages ​​more practical.

“We realized that the quality threshold for doing anything with these guys was so big that, no matter what we did, we would be a very small part of a much larger process,” Ripperbelli said in an interview with the company. told CNBC in the London workplace.

“What was more interesting was the democratizing aspect of it: There are millions of people in the world who want to make videos, but they’re not making videos today because they don’t have the budget.”

In an Apple-style keynote, Synthesia’s CEO unveiled the company’s brand new products, pitching them as an additional productivity-focused suite of tools for value through companies rather than just a platform that trades in AI avatars. Presented.

One of the biggest new features the company showed off was a way to create an AI-generated avatar by recording photos for up to 5 minutes using a webcam or your phone. You can also clone your accent to have avatars speak in more than one other language

Normally, to create an AI avatar using Synthesia’s platform, you have to proceed directly to the studio in person. Human actors proceed into a recording booth, report their pronunciation, and deliver lines in front of a green screen in preparation for filming.

That’s all the coaching information it needs to serve up Synesthesia’s AI rules with the facial and voice nuances it needs to get a hold of human avatars that talk in expressive ways. Earlier this year, Synthesia introduced new expressive avatars that will bring out human emotions including happiness, sadness and frustration.

Now, however, Synthesia is introducing a new tool that will make it easier for customers to create a virtual model of themselves from anywhere, using just a webcam and Synthesia’s tools.

The company is also launching the ability to create full-body avatars. This differs from Synthesia’s streamed avatars, which may be limited to portrait view only. Now, you’ll step into a studio with dozens of cameras, sensors, and lighting fixtures around you to create avatars that will move their arms.

Creating weapons is something that is traditionally easy for AI – often because arms are only a small part of the human body and are not a point of interest in visual content in most cases.

Synthesia also introduced a way to have game videos of AI avatars speaking in any language of their choice, be it English, French, German, or Chinese.

Moving forward, Synthesia says, it will have the ability to tailor AI avatars to different international locations: for example, a Nigerian avatar walks a consumer through an academic rather than an American one.

Synthesia also introduced a new AI video laborer that will generate summaries of entire articles and documents. This could be an HR specialist who can create a rough video, a handy guide explaining corporate benefits applications as an example.

Another big feature the company is introducing is a new display screen recording tool, which displays an AI avatar that guides you through what you’re seeing.

In CNBC’s interview with him, Ripperbelly explained what Synthesia is trying to do in the form of an enterprise-focused product overhaul that could make it more in line with the giants Microsoft, sales forceAnd zoom Within the Enterprise Division.

“The world has been struck by this thing over the last 12 to 18 to 24 months, which is amazing,” Ripperbelly told CNBC.

“But now we’ve done a lot of experiments, and we’ve found the right use cases for these technologies that have lasting business value. They’re not just like a short-term PR moment.”

“You need to meet a business goal of reducing customer support tickets by showing videos instead of text, or selling by creating videos instead of just sending emails,” he adds.

“Now people are building workflows around it. They need better ways to achieve their business goals, not just interface with AI models. That’s where we’re headed as a company.”

Last year, Synthesia raised $90 million in an investment round from investors including US chip maker Nvidia and project capital company Accel, valuing it at $1 billion and giving it “unicorn” status.

The company competes with AI video tools like Weed, Colossian, Ally and Hazen. And Chinese-owned social media app TikTok also recently launched Symphony Workman, a product that allows creators to create their own AI avatars.

The company makes money through various subscription pricing plans ranging from $22 for a “Starter” plan to $67 for a “Creator” plan to customized “Enterprise” plans, where pricing is negotiated with Synthesia’s gross sales group. It happens.