Scrolling through LinkedIn, I recently came across a video of someone filming himself and telling a rather interesting story. It was only at the end of the video that he revealed the person in the video was not him but an AI avatar; I was shocked…simply because I had not realised. By recording yourself with your webcam for 30 seconds you can apparently create yourself an avatar that will say anything you want it to by giving it a script. Might we all interact with each other through our own-created avatars in the nearby future?
HeyGen is an AI-powered Video Generation tool that will allow each and every one of us to get access to over 100 different AI avatars, use 300 different types of voices, available in over 40 different languages, and is super easy to use (HeyGen, 2023).
Starting with HeyGen, each new user of the application gets to create one free avatar which can basically be set up in less than 5 minutes. First thing you do is to choose whether you want text or video instructions:
Next, HeyGen will ask you to upload your footage which is recommended to be a 2-minute video of high resolution in order to create the best possible AI avatar.
Finally, the fun part starts when you can give your avatar a name, decide on the view mode, and choose yourself a face together with a voice of your liking.
Personally, I found it very easy to go through all necessary steps and set up my first avatar. Looking into my very own first avatar creation, I start to wander what impact this will have on society in the future. Presently being able to speak only Dutch, English, German, and French, a tool like HeyGen will give me the possibility to upload a video and have it sound like I can suddenly speak 40 languages fluently: quite impressive right?
Next to having a lot of different languages at your fingertips, it will also give you access to an extensive library of voices. Thus, HeyGen will allow you to not only convert your presentation to a different language, but also gives you the possibility to choose the most suitable voice to narrate your story (RTL Niews, 2023).
From my own perspective, I believe AI tools like HeyGen will impact business practises in a way where they are able to reach wider audiences, cutting through a language barrier, and allowing businesses create creative content in a relatively short time. How do you think similar tools like this will be leveraged by companies in the future?
HeyGen. (2023). About us. Retrieved from HeyGen.com: https://www.heygen.com/
RTL Niews. (2023, September 16). Met deze AI-tool spreek jij ineens vloeiend Spaans of Arabisch. Retrieved from RTL Nieuws Tech: https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/video/video/5407976/met-deze-ai-tool-spreek-jij-ineens-vloeiend-spaans-arabisch
Thanks for sharing your immersive experience with HeyGen AI. I had seen a comparable tool online but did not know versions of this tool were already available to the public. The screenshots that were used in your explanation illustrate the steps taken well and effectively display all the options users have. I definitely think there are benefits to this AI tool however I think these are outweighed by the dangers of the technology. The potential benefits are that it could assist in therapeutic settings where people could possibly interact with avatars of their loved ones or in the work setting where people could communicate a message in a foreign language for better understanding. However, such use needs to be controlled because there is high potential for mailcious use with this tool. Individuals could leverage this tool to spread false information and post a realistic video online of someone who has not given consent for this. I would’ve liked to see some more addressing of the potential drawbacks associated with the technology in the above blog but definitely a very interesting read. Well done!
I liked your blog post on HeyGen AI. I like how it was linked with past class discussions about the use of generative AI to create digital replicas of real-life people. It is a very interesting technology which can have many creative uses, as well as less “friendly” applications, so it should be used with care 🙂