5 ms·

Soul Machines

34 points by nayyad 7y ago

whatshisface 7y ago
>The World’s First Autonomously Animated Digital Influencer Influencers are people who plug products on their Instagram/YouTube/Twitter pages. They're the TV pitchmen of this century. Now that real humans are no longer required for this task, we can say we've finally reached a point where the archetypal "soulless corporate automation" can be an actual soulless corporate automation.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Add automated buyers responding to automated influencers by purchasing goods and services from automated sellers, and we might end up bootstrapping an economy that doesn't need any humans, running in a loop until it eats everything and/or breaks down. I broke my back lifting Moloch to Heaven, and all I got was this lousy Disneyland with no children.
blueboo 7y ago
This reads like the placeholder template text for a landing page sold on Envato. Credulous VCs deserve the ride they’re being taken on
Lowkeyloki 7y ago
This reminds me of those attempts to "record" people's consciousnesses by feeding all their digital communications into neural nets. But this is somehow even worse.
Applejinx 7y ago
Stay in touch (I'm not a robot)
mst 7y ago
<title>Cannes Festival Home Page - Soul Machines</title> Is this performance art or did somebody just screw up the title tag?
- extra88 7y ago
  What's wrong with the page title? It has other references to them presenting/ participating in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity which took place in June. https://www.canneslions.com https://www.canneslions.com
jasode 7y ago
The demonstration videos on Soul Machine's website (and also on youtube) show the level of realism is closer to artificial video games (compare to Unreal Engine 4 demo[1]) rather than the advanced and almost-undetectable "deep fakes". But it doesn't matter that the fake digital personas are not "perfect" and has an "uncanny valley" look to them. There's various research[2] that says that avatars with "eye contact" or "eye gaze" helps some children learn better. It seems plausible that avatars can also affect mood of customer service interactions or advertising. If one looks at their technology page[3], it's like taking the Unreal Engine for synthesizing facial expressions combined with A.I. for understanding speech and responding in natural language. I.e. It's like adding a realtime digital face with emotional affectations to Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa. [1] deep link: https://youtu.be/Vh9msqaoJZw?t=194 https://youtu.be/Vh9msqaoJZw?t=194 [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=avatars+virtual+teacher+learning+comprehension+"eye+contact" https://www.google.com/search?q=avatars+virtual+teacher+lear... [3] https://www.soulmachines.com/technology/ https://www.soulmachines.com/technology/
spookybones 7y ago
I was hoping for a masterful reveal in the video, in which the staff discussing soul machines are revealed at the end to be 2nd-gen soul machines.
sgt101 7y ago
no papers, no patents, pure bullshit. my guess is that the plan is to hang on and hope that technology will appear that they can use, and that money will appear to allow them to dominate. they better have very deep pockets, and a lot of patience.
Kanhoji 7y ago
The "I am not a robot" reCaptcha is an interesting flavour on the email list.
- HillaryBriss 7y ago
  I want to see the soul machines should stage a "google style" protest walkout over that kind of blatant discrimination.

34 points by nayyad 7y ago

>The World’s First Autonomously Animated Digital Influencer Influencers are people who plug products on their Instagram/YouTube/Twitter pages. They're the TV pitchmen of this century. Now that real humans are no longer required for this task, we can say we've finally reached a point where the archetypal "soulless corporate automation" can be an actual soulless corporate automation.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
Add automated buyers responding to automated influencers by purchasing goods and services from automated sellers, and we might end up bootstrapping an economy that doesn't need any humans, running in a loop until it eats everything and/or breaks down. I broke my back lifting Moloch to Heaven, and all I got was this lousy Disneyland with no children.

blueboo 7y ago

This reads like the placeholder template text for a landing page sold on Envato. Credulous VCs deserve the ride they’re being taken on

Lowkeyloki 7y ago

This reminds me of those attempts to "record" people's consciousnesses by feeding all their digital communications into neural nets. But this is somehow even worse.

Applejinx 7y ago

Stay in touch (I'm not a robot)

mst 7y ago

<title>Cannes Festival Home Page - Soul Machines</title> Is this performance art or did somebody just screw up the title tag?

extra88 7y ago
What's wrong with the page title? It has other references to them presenting/ participating in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity which took place in June. https://www.canneslions.com https://www.canneslions.com

jasode 7y ago

The demonstration videos on Soul Machine's website (and also on youtube) show the level of realism is closer to artificial video games (compare to Unreal Engine 4 demo[1]) rather than the advanced and almost-undetectable "deep fakes". But it doesn't matter that the fake digital personas are not "perfect" and has an "uncanny valley" look to them. There's various research[2] that says that avatars with "eye contact" or "eye gaze" helps some children learn better. It seems plausible that avatars can also affect mood of customer service interactions or advertising. If one looks at their technology page[3], it's like taking the Unreal Engine for synthesizing facial expressions combined with A.I. for understanding speech and responding in natural language. I.e. It's like adding a realtime digital face with emotional affectations to Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa. [1] deep link: https://youtu.be/Vh9msqaoJZw?t=194 https://youtu.be/Vh9msqaoJZw?t=194 [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=avatars+virtual+teacher+learning+comprehension+"eye+contact" https://www.google.com/search?q=avatars+virtual+teacher+lear... [3] https://www.soulmachines.com/technology/ https://www.soulmachines.com/technology/

spookybones 7y ago

I was hoping for a masterful reveal in the video, in which the staff discussing soul machines are revealed at the end to be 2nd-gen soul machines.

sgt101 7y ago

no papers, no patents, pure bullshit. my guess is that the plan is to hang on and hope that technology will appear that they can use, and that money will appear to allow them to dominate. they better have very deep pockets, and a lot of patience.

Kanhoji 7y ago

The "I am not a robot" reCaptcha is an interesting flavour on the email list.

HillaryBriss 7y ago
I want to see the soul machines should stage a "google style" protest walkout over that kind of blatant discrimination.