When Alexandru Voica, head of corporate affairs at the video-generation startup Synthesia, introduced me to their latest PR team member this summer, I was taken aback. It was an interactive virtual avatar of him, designed to answer common press questions about Synthesia, such as what the company does and how it operates. Just the day before, I had participated in a panel discussion where PR professionals inquired about my thoughts on pitches utilizing AI-generated text. However, Alexandru's avatar transcended that — it felt like the pinnacle of AI application in public relations.
Synthesia's New Office and Innovations
In September, I visited Synthesia's new office in New York. Originally based in the U.K., Synthesia has emerged as a leading digital avatar startup, alongside competitors like D-ID, HeyGen, and Colossyan. The company reached a $4 billion valuation earlier this year and reported exceeding $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year.
Synthesia enables enterprises to create interactive training videos featuring AI avatars. They recently launched a product called Roleplay Sessions, allowing employees to practice scenarios, such as sales pitches, with an interactive AI avatar that provides feedback and scores their performance.
When I was invited to create my own AI avatar during the office opening, I eagerly accepted. My outfit was stylish that day, and my hair was perfectly styled. Until that moment, I had been indifferent towards avatars, but I sensed they would soon become integral to our online experiences. I had heard of individuals on Instagram crafting avatars resembling themselves to enhance their social media content. This trend intrigued me, which is likely why I felt no hesitation in presenting my digital twin to you.
Creating My Digital Twin
This marks the first instance where Synthesia has developed a digital avatar for a journalist, or anyone outside of Voica. My avatar is specifically trained on my article discussing why venture-backed startups tend to commit more fraud than their non-VC-backed counterparts, and it will only respond to inquiries related to that story. To create this avatar, I entered a mini film studio within Synthesia's office, where they captured numerous photos of me and recorded a two-minute audio sample of my voice.
I consented to the creation of these avatars, and thus, Digital Dom was born. They produced a personal avatar for me that simply reads any script I provide, available in versions with and without glasses. Additionally, they created two interactive avatars capable of conversing and responding to me, also in both styles. We selected an article to train the interactive avatar, and one of the teams built it using a combination of voice-to-text, video, language, and text-to-voice models.
