Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our society
We humans are defined by our capacity for innovation and creation and as much as we might revere the birth of tool use and the invention of the wheel – the development of artificial intelligence is just as revolutionary.
The astonishing thing is that we are only just beginning to discover and understand the potential impact of artificial intelligence, because we are only at the start of this complex technology’s evolution and journey.
Still, artificial intelligence has been in our lives for some time now. Most of us are familiar with the most common artificial intelligence applications, such as GPS, facial recognition, language translation, even ‘follow suggestions’ on social media.
One of the most recent benefits of artificial intelligence is the development of metahumans, which will accelerate the role of artificial intelligence in business and transform sectors including healthcare, education, finance, and marketing.
What is metahuman artificial intelligence?
Metahumans are highly digitized humans, designed to look and act exactly like real people on screen.
Avatars, their forerunners, had already become incredibly lifelike thanks to a combination of high-end graphics, visual design, audio, lighting, animation and more.
Many people have already had the experience of designing an avatar on a video game, selecting hair and eye color, hairstyle, even nose shape, to make their avatar as similar to themselves as possible – or as different.
The technology soon spread to simulations, training software and advertising, with the metahumans evolving in the latter sometimes called ‘virtual influencers’ – especially now face scans are being used to make them look indistinguishable from real humans.
It is when this technology of appearance and animation is meshed with the next generation artificial intelligence that metahumans’ potential is fully unleashed.
The next generation artificial intelligence
Denis Rothman suggests the catalyst was Google launching a new artificial intelligence model called a Transformer in 2017, and it is this technology that is at the heart of the metahuman revolution.
Transformers, he says, are trained to learn sequences of billions of data records on supercomputers with billions of parameters and Google has since developed a trillion-parameter model, called a Switch Transformer.
Just one trained Transformer model will allow a user to perform an unlimited number of tasks, such as question answering, chat bots, semantic analysis, sentiment analysis and summarizing texts – rather than needing multiple models.
That’s why they are sometimes called ‘foundation models’, because one model can perform many tasks, and, through emergence, can even learn on a self-supervised basis and perform tasks they were not trained to do.
Recent models have acquired human levels of reasoning and foundation models have been found to respond to prompts with very human-like replies.
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How can metahuman technology be utilized?
The potential uses of metahumans in the business sector are obvious, not least as a way of “humanizing” the customer service experience by providing customers with a friendly face, as well as immediate responses to their questions and queries.
Corporate training, too, could become more cost effective, as would “face-to-face” banking services offered through mobile devices.
Metahuman copies of real-life celebrities have already been used to create interactive celebrity applications, such as teaching yoga, dance, and physical fitness.
There are important social uses too. Counterintuitively, the elderly have been among the first to appreciate the importance of artificial intelligence in their daily lives – with metahumans, in some cases, operating in the absence of human carers.
A metahuman chatbot, with a kind human face and voice, can issue reminders about eating and taking medication, Rothman says. They can also talk to people about what television channel they would like to watch, or what music they would like to hear. Perhaps, most importantly, they can not only converse, but offer sympathy like a human.
The potential of artificial intelligence to transform education
Metahumans can also play a vital role in global education.
In remote areas, chatbots could interact with students through solar-powered tablets, without them having to travel long distances to come together in a traditional classroom.
It remains important to monitor metahumans’ responses to humans, however, particularly children, but, in this case, one teacher could oversee the replies of many bots.
Adults too can benefit. Those who are ashamed of being unable to read or write, for example, may feel more comfortable being taught by a metahuman. Language learning, too, would be less intimidating, as would other subjects.
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What are the advantages of metahumans vs humans?
As some analysts point out, metahumans never age, they have unlimited working hours and they are scalable, which means they can be in several places at once.
They are increasingly being perceived as more reliable than their human counterparts. A metahuman being used to advertise or represent a product or brand is unlikely to be embroiled in a scandal, for example, or say something damaging, and the same goes for their use in customer-facing roles, education and social care.
Metahumans can also be tailored to the expectations of audiences in various countries, in terms of physical appearance, personality and use of language, among others
The impact of metahuman artificial intelligence is already evident
We are just at the beginning of our journey with metahuman artificial intelligence.
Although legal and moral frameworks need to be established and utilized as new uses emerge, this expanding technology presents exciting opportunities for the future, let’s talk.
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Sources
https://discover.bot/bot-talk/the-rise-of-metahuman-ai/
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/11/what-is-epic-games-unreal-5/
https://daxueconsulting.com/metahumans-in-china/
https://www.roadtovr.com/epic-metahuman-mesh-import-scan-real-people-digital-human-avatar/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/06/19/7-types-of-artificial-intelligence
