“Hybrid Verse”
According to Greg Cross, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Soul Machines, a leader in the humanization of AI, creating autonomously animated Digital People that empower organizations to reimagine customer experiences in today’s digital worlds and the metaverse, “The Metaverse has already happened, we are living in the hybrid verse.”
While this is true, the startup that he helped set up is a key player in this new technological revolution as “advances like autonomous animation and empathetic customer experience allow Soul Machines to create digital people who can be a company’s skilled, knowledgeable and helpful emissaries within and between all universes.”
Cross — a serial tech entrepreneur — founded Soul Machines in 2016 along with Academy Award winner, Mark Sagar, the company’s CEO. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the startup is the only company with a patented Digital Brain and Autonomous Animation technology delivering the full capabilities and goodness of human and machine collaboration in a responsive, relatable and unprecedented way.
Human OS Platform
At the centre of Soul Machines’ exciting IP is the Human OS Platform. This orchestrates the Digital Brain, which manages all the inputs and outputs that drive Autonomous Animation, and acts as an interface to other AI technologies, web services, and enterprise tools. Digital DNA Studio enables the training and deployment of your Digital People, all powered by Human OS.
Simply put, the core system consists of three parts:
• Digital Brain
Core technology that allows Digital People to perceive, think, talk, and respond with appropriate expressions and gestures
• Autonomous Animation
The essence for an authentic and interactive human-machine connection
• Digital DNA Studio
End-to-end tool to create and deploy Digital People for your own unique needs
Digital People can help you in millions of ways
– Soul Machines
The company offers two products through its IP, the Digital DNA Studio and Digital People Skills:
• Digital DNA Studio
With free subscription upon application approval, the Digital DNA Studio allows users to create, test and evaluate experiences with Digital People
• Enterprise Developer Package
The Enterprise Developer Package gives users the possibility to create and deploy Digital People in a single or multiple use cases, as well as being able to demonstrate to a limited number of users such as your co-workers, management, partners, and customers
One of the most recent use cases of Soul Machines’ technological capabilities came in June when Soul Machines teamed up with NBA All-Star and entrepreneur Carmelo Anthony on Day 2 of the Collision tech conference to create an autonomously animated ‘Digital Melo’.
Digital Melo
On stage with Cross, the real Anthony’s first words to his digital avatar were: “It’s an honour to meet my digital twin”. They chatted about themselves and a bottle of wine Carmelo had kept aside for his digital twin. When asked if AIs can drink, Digital Melo replied, “We’re gonna have to find out”.
When the NBA star was asked how he intends to use his Digital Melo, Anthony’s reply was exciting, though brief: “We’re just getting started. We’re at the very beginning. We haven’t even taken off yet.”
It really has to be seen to be believed, but this is where companies like Soul Machines and others are taking us.
Financially, too, the startup is in a good place, as Soul Machines has raised a total of $135 million in funding over three rounds, according to Crunchbase. Its latest, at the beginning of this year, was a $70-million Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund.
On the investment, Cross said:
“I am thrilled to continue to work with innovative, global brands who understand the power of digital people to communicate, engage and interact with the world.
We are in a transformational era where brands need to introduce different ways of personalization and ways to deliver unique brand experiences to customers in a very transactional digital world.”
Already a leader in the space along with IBM Watson Assistant and Ultimate, Soul Machines’ autonomously animated digital people are going to make the Metaverse an amazing place.
Please, people, get ready for your digital twin — courtesy, of course, to amazing companies like Soul Machines.
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