Will your multilingual AI avatar eventually join the payroll?

Imagine the time when an amazing life-like avatar of ‘you’ joins the payroll at your company to do certain tasks you once did. That was a discussion I had with a colleague from the Far East at the International Police Education Conference after my Guildhawk Voice avatar delivered part of my talk.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution has started and it might not be that long before your business hires your digital self to do a bit of your work.

Senior leaders are busy people and may not have the time attend multiple conferences across the world or wait around in a film studio to make a short corporate video. This is where their avatar twin steps in to make a professional quality video of the person speaking one or more languages in minutes without the hassle of travelling. It also frees them to do more and helps the business reduce its carbon footprint by travelling less.

Audiences are enchanted by watching and attentively listening to these lifelike digital twins. They are often indistinguishable from the real human. I feel honoured when people compliment my authentic avatar, especially when they hear the ‘digital me’ speaking in Mandarin, French, German or Arabic. Audiences always ask how the magic works.

This sensational technology converts text to a speaking-being quickly and easily. It is some way off passing the Turing Test and exhibiting intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human because it needs human imagination to power it. However, revolutionary AI will help humans overcome major challenges.

We are short of people with skills in medicine, healthcare, law, finance, education, science, coding and public safety. Everywhere you look there is a shortage of people. Imagine now, a time when access to these trusted people is plentiful because they all have avatars they have trained to amplify their reach 10 times over. That may be the time when you have a discussion about bringing your digital twin onto the payroll. Of course there are lengthy conversations to have about risk and ethics, intellectual property rights and how this would change the pay and conditions that apply to you and your hard-working avatar. So the final challenge could be deciding how to make your life happier with the extra time AI could give you.

Returning to now, Guildhawk Voice avatars can already help you reach millions of people in different languages. Organisations are deploying amazing AI like my avatar to get benefits from their multilingual big data and provide briefings in 60 languages because the messages stick. They also save them time and money, and play a vital role in protecting Mother Earth. Suddenly, this gives businesses super powers and an ironclad edge over competitors. That’s a bargain not to be missed.

It is crucial that new AI technologies remain a force for good and the key to this is data integrity. AI uses machine learning that is only as good as the data it is trained on. The old saying, ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ holds true. Old AI platforms that promise to deliver digital transformation often fail because the big data they are trained on has been polluted. Guildhawk’s systems work because the multilingual data lake that is used to train AI was built over 8 years and is ultra-pure. Importantly, the information is managed in a secure manner that is independently certified compliant with ISO:27001 the international standard for information security management systems.

“I am amazed at what new AI can do to help people make the world a safer, more sustainable place.”

David Clarke, Head of Integrity, Guildhawk

These are the kind of new platforms that will power what is called the 4th Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0. These are needed to accelerate the pace of digital transformation in every sector so businesses remain competitive and profitable and achieve their Net Zero targets to tackle climate change.

The Industry 4.0 technology revolution has begun. Microsoft announced in November 2021 that Mesh for Microsoft Teams will make collaboration in the metaverse personal and fun by using avatars of ourselves as an alternative to our real self if we so desire. The balance between working in the physical and virtual world will differ across organisations and there will be media frenzy when the first business introduces multilingual avatars to do more tasks.

Those looking to capture the attention of global audiences with their 3D digital twins need them to look professional. When you see what is created in a state of the art green screen studio with HD or 4K digital cameras and voice recordings, like the process used to produce a Guildhawk avatar, the quality is remarkable. And importantly, the process is secure.

I am amazed at what new AI can do to help people make the world a safer, more sustainable place. And if avatars make people’s working lives happier and more productive that will be a miraculous thing to emerge after the pandemic.

David Clarke, founder and former Director of the Police National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, the Chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel and Head of Integrity at Guildhawk

David was speaking at the International Police Education Conference hosted by University of West London and the London Policing College.