Synthesia, a startup using AI to create synthetic videos, is walking a fine, but thus far prosperous, line between being creepy and being pretty freakin’ cool.
Today, it announced the close of aVictor Riparbelli said that user behavior didn’t necessarily match up to his earlier expectations. Rather than seeing tons of usage from video production departments, other folks inside the organization are the power users of the tool.
“Anyone who, before Synthesia, could produce a slide deck or write a Word document can now actually create video content,” said Riparbelli. “I think that’s the key thing that is making us grow so fast from an AI perspective.”
Since raising a \)"> 12.5 million Series A in April, Synthesia has added features that make it even easier for users to create their own animated talkers, and the platform now has 1000 custom avatars in use. Riparbelli cited Ernst & Young as an example customer. The law firm has 35 partners with their own avatars, creating videos for both internal comms and client communication.
The startup takes that a step further with the ability to create videos featuring an avatar that looks and feels like a real person, either an unknown actor or the CEO of your own company.
Synthesia isn’t the only company doing work in its problem space. An Israeli company called D-ID actually demo’d their tech at Disrupt 2021, showing how they can take a still image of a person and turn it into video content.
In other words, the race is on, in a few ways. Companies looking to make video creation easier through AI and avatars must not only race to increase realism and add in a sliding scale for emotional expression, etc., but they must also ensure the safety of users and the credibility of their own platforms.
It’s plain as day to see how these types of tools could be used to mislead or do harm to large numbers of people, and it’s up to the companies creating these tools to ensure they’re used in an above board fashion.
For Synthesia’s part, the company is pretty clear about not synthesizing anyone without explicit consent and the tech is only accessible via an on-rails experience fully controlled by the company.
All that said, don’t be surprised to see a video from your department head or CEO, but not quite them, in the near future.
Today, it announced the close of a
The ‘anyone can make video’ concept gives me very strong Canva vibes. The \)">40 billion Australian startup shot up like a rocket after unlocking the ability to design — anything — for the rest of the organization outside of the design department. Canva also launched its own video product recently, focusing more on turning existing designs and slide decks into animated, lively videos.
The startup takes that a step further with the ability to create videos featuring an avatar that looks and feels like a real person, either an unknown actor or the CEO of your own company.
Synthesia isn’t the only company doing work in its problem space. An Israeli company called D-ID actually demo’d their tech at Disrupt 2021, showing how they can take a still image of a person and turn it into video content.
In other words, the race is on, in a few ways. Companies looking to make video creation easier through AI and avatars must not only race to increase realism and add in a sliding scale for emotional expression, etc., but they must also ensure the safety of users and the credibility of their own platforms.
It’s plain as day to see how these types of tools could be used to mislead or do harm to large numbers of people, and it’s up to the companies creating these tools to ensure they’re used in an above board fashion.
For Synthesia’s part, the company is pretty clear about not synthesizing anyone without explicit consent and the tech is only accessible via an on-rails experience fully controlled by the company.
All that said, don’t be surprised to see a video from your department head or CEO, but not quite them, in the near future.