Since AI has become available to the masses, people have used it for many different kinds of stuff: from writing photoshoot setups for fun to recreating deceased loved ones to ease the grief. If you’re feeling lonely, you can now even have a video call with ChatGPT. Thanks to an app Call Annie, you can now video call “your best AI friend.”
While Annie is a non-existent person, she looks as human and believable as it gets. And after watching a demo, I can say that it’s as impressive as it is uncomfortable to watch her interact.
Annie is a super-realistic and intelligent female avatar developed by Animato.Ai. It’s available as an iOS app, currently exclusive to iOS 16. However, you can also use it on macOS 13 with an M-series processor. The original image of Annie’s face was generated with Midjourney, as one of her makers notes on Reddit. “Her expressions and lip movements are animated on-device in real-time to match the generated speech,” he adds. “Right now, the content of what she says is generated by ChatGPT.”
Chris Frantz tested the app and posted the video on Twitter. I am equally terrified, uncomfortable, and impressed. The automatic-sounding voice and a face from a highly detailed video game tell you that Annie is not real. But then again, she talks in a pretty natural and relaxed tone, with her lips syncing to her words perfectly. She responds quickly and accurately to questions, which makes the whole chatting experience super weird. You can hear Chris getting uncomfortable toward the end of the conversation:
Not to be too much of an AI Doomer but I just had a FaceTime call with a near realtime ChatGPT-powered AI avatar and it was…surprisingly human.
Anyway, I recorded it.
This is the actual response speed, it’s very fast.
(You can also hear me kind of lose it towards the end) pic.twitter.com/MF81nAo40Z
— Chris Frantz (@frantzfries) April 26, 2023
This instantly reminded me of the movie Her, its vibe, and the sadness I felt after watching it. A Reddit user also compared Annie to this movie andasked if she would remember them. “If you can give her a memory, she’ll outperform every human friendship with her insights, empathy and knowledge,” they wrote. To this question, the app developer replied “Soon!!” and I went to lie in the fetal position and hug my pillow. Although Annie still needs to be perfected, at this rate of AI development, I think she will be pretty soon. And who knows where it will take us as we grow more and more apart from each other.
[via Digital Trends]
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