Are AI avatars the next digital frontier?
by Sasha Tityanko, Deputy CEO and Creative Director of Sensorium Galaxy
Almost every part of today’s digitally-run society relies on artificial intelligence.
And with the emergence of increasingly more advanced technology, it’s become imperative to ponder about what the world of tomorrow might look like. Perhaps the answer can be found in a major tech breakthrough that’s well underway in a very different and otherworldly realm.
That’s as the first intelligent and autonomous avatars are making a grand entrance in the metaverse, taking over a series of burgeoning virtual worlds as digital companions, assistants, entertainers and creators. Breaking away from traditional chatbots like Siri or Alexa, whose capabilities are limited by the scenarios and scripts they’ve been trained on, these new AI lifeforms hold the promise of becoming a meaningful experience for human users in virtual settings thanks to a combination of different cutting-edge advancements.
Equipped with complex conversational skills alongside unprecedented memory capabilities, AI-driven virtual beings are not only capable of having hours-long conversations across a wide range of topics and themes, but also recall past interactions they had with a human, anchoring all of their communications on context and associative memory.
However, the game-changing prowess of this new breed of avatars is perhaps even more obvious through a display of a number of traits that we would only typically associate with humans.
Each AI-driven virtual being can be fitted with a so-called ‘virtual soul’ or consciousness, which users will be able to configure choosing from a pool of options, including biographical details, habits, career goals, needs and even hidden personality indicators.
Void of prejudice, biases, beliefs and any preconceived notions about a person, virtual beings have the potential to become the companion we always longed for but never had.
The metaverse also presents an exciting blank canvas for users, creators and artists. In it, emerging technology is already supporting new ways of conceptualising, creating and experiencing the arts, with AI avatars taking on the role of co-creators.
In the not so distant future, AI DJs are poised to become commonplace, dishing out supercharged futuristic tracks in virtual reality worlds imagined to take music and entertainment into uncharted territory, and introduce human senses to unknown dimensions.
Currently, generative AI technology is already enabling AI-driven performers to independently mix and match from over 60 different music genres, creating not only full music sets but also the world’s first AI albums. And while they’re yet to score a number one hit, there’s no stopping these AI superstars as they continue a slow re-jig of the creative scene in the metaverse and beyond.
AI holds the promise of a future that’s exponentially better than today – and then some more.
With AI-enabled chatbots forecast to balloon to a $4.6 billion global market by 2026, as per QY Research, there will be no industry left untouched, from healthcare and retail to banking and tourism.
Amidst this boom, virtual worlds are rapidly becoming the testing ground for many of the next decade’s most significant technological advancements.
And so, we might soon be arriving at the next digital frontier. In it, AI beings take centre stage in our social lives, taking us through the metaverse and the many unfolding digital experiences that the future holds as companions, co-creators, entertainers and the faithful presence we’re long been waiting for.