The four-minute music video, co-produced by Tencent-backed artificial intelligence (AI) start-up ObEN, claims to be the world’s first commercially released song co-starring human singers and their AI 3D avatars.
“This song is our first step to test the waters in the virtual idol market. We are planning to create more intelligent virtual idols, releasing albums and making movies for them,” said Xiong Wei, vice-president of the Shanghai-based SNH48.
“Human idols are hardly perfect. They have their limits in terms of age and there may be gossip about their love affairs. None of these will be an issue for virtual idols,” said Xiong, adding that a female idol usually has a career lifespan of eight years before she stops “exuding a youthful glow”.
By using computer vision, natural language processing and speech technology, the Pasadena, California-based ObEN is able to create 3D intelligent avatars that not only look, sound, and learn to behave like their individual human counterparts but can stay forever young.
Last edited:
