News

AWS AI Drives Growth of 'Autonomous Virtual Human' Tech

• By David Ramel
• 10/09/2024

A novel use case for AWS's AI offerings is helping to grow a newly cloud-hosted Autonomous Virtual Human (AVH) project.

Visual effects specialist Digital Domain announced a collaboration with the cloud giant to migrate its AVH technology to the cloud, leveraging AWS's advanced cloud infrastructure and generative AI and machine learning (ML) services.

The company is a leader in the AVH space, having introduced Zoey, "the world's most advanced autonomous human," in 2022. The company specializes in creating visual effects for films, television, commercials and games.

While the firm has an entertainment focus, AVH is also used in healthcare, hospitality and customer service to provide personalized, real-time interactions.

Digital Domain's recent news release highlights various AI services offered by AWS.

"AWS's cloud services, particularly Amazon Bedrock, provide the necessary adaptability to drive AVH's growth," the company said. "With its high-performing foundation models, Amazon Bedrock significantly enhances virtual humans' capabilities in real-time interactions. Additionally, Digital Domain is using Amazon Polly to help enhance voice outputs, and is considering using Amazon Rekognition for facial recognition and video-based services. AWS's robust security and compliance features will safeguard Digital Domain's data, reinforcing the integrity and scalability of the AVH platform."

With the advent of generative AI that supercharged "virtual humans" like Zoey, the technology has taken off. AVT is closely related to chatbots, virtual agents, avatars and so on, which are all advancing rapidly.

NVIDIA, for example, earlier this year unveiled NVIDIA ACE, a suite of generative AI-enabled tools to make it easier for developers to build digital human technology.

A whitepaper from Infovision, "Digital humans: Revolutionizing human-computer interaction," explains more about the concept:

Digital humans represent a significant leap forward in human-computer interaction, offering a bridge between human emotions and cutting-edge technology. The applications of digital humans span a wide range of industries. They serve as conversational interfaces, personalized recommendation providers, interactive guides, and even digital influencers. As the landscape evolves don't be surprised if the digital humans take over roles as virtual secretaries, healthcare advisors, sales assistants, and more, making service delivery more interesting and expansive.

All three cloud giants are also getting in on the action themselves.

AWS, for example, published "Guidance for Creating a Personalized Avatar with Amazon SageMaker" along with "Guidance for Livestreams Hosted with Digital Humans on AWS." The company also offers "GenASL: Generative AI-powered American Sign Language avatars."

Microsoft, meanwhile, in August announced that "Text to Speech Avatar in Azure AI is now generally available."

"This service brings natural-sounding voices and photorealistic avatars to life, enhancing customer engagement and overall experience," Microsoft said. "With TTS Avatar, developers can create personalized and engaging experiences for their customers and employees, while also improving efficiency and providing innovative solutions."

Google last year announced that "Conversational AI on Gen App Builder unlocks generative AI-powered chatbots and virtual agents."

The company said that offering "makes it easy for developers -- even those without ML experience -- to build AI-powered chatbots and conversational experiences covering customer and employee support; concierge assistance (e.g. personalized product discovery, travel planning, banking); automation of tasks (e.g., food ordering, appointment booking, e-commerce); device control (e.g. conversational manuals, in-car assistant); and more."

Google also in March announced "A generalist AI agent for 3D virtual environments."

Google Cloud also provides tools like Dialogflow and Vertex AI for building conversational agents and virtual assistants that can be integrated into more complex virtual human systems for customer service, education, healthcare and so on.

While all these aren't directly correlated with AVH technology, the entire "virtual human" or "digital human" space is proceeding apace, so stay tuned for more developments as the cloud giants facilitate the melding of machines and humanity.