WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

In the future will we need human actors, artists, entertainers, pop stars, writers and and and … ? And if not then what?

Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, read about exponential tech and trends,  connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog.

While we continue to see more digital humans take center stage, whether it’s Sony investing in and creating their own ranges of virtual pop stars, companies using them to provide customer service or teach kids, or actual “Synthetic Beings” that can “think” for themselves using neural network brains and interact with gamers in real time, it’s becoming clear to everyone that on the actual stage there’s only one company to watch – Metaphysic.

After several rounds now Metaphysic’s synthetic performers continued to impress the judges of America’s Got Talent at the recent semi-finals event. Virtual versions of host Terry Crews and judges Simon Cowell and Howie Mandel performed “Nessun Dorma” on a screen while mimicking three human singers in real time. The result earned a standing ovation from the judges. Metaphysic made a splash at America’s Got Talent initially with a synthetic Simon Cowell lip-syncing a performance by former America’s Got Talent contestant Daniel Emmet of  “You’re the Inspiration” by Chicago. The new performance raised Cowell’s estimation of Metaphysic even further.

The Future of Synthetic Content and Deepfakes, by Matthew Griffin

“This is not the best Act of the night,” Cowell said after the performance. “This is the best Act of the series so far.” His comments mirrored the other hosts, with Heidi Klum commenting that it was, “beautiful singing, the opera was amazing. And then when you swap the faces live right here, the whole thing is epic.”

But not everyone agreed with the judges as evident on Twitter as the debate over the continued rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) performers as well as artists and writers continues to spark more heated debates than ever before as the technology starts taking more of the spotlight, and more of the jobs.

An outstanding performance, for an AI …

The comments from AGT viewers mirrored some of those who have been getting upset about an AI artist that used Midjourney’s AI powered Text-to-Image to create a winning piece of art at the recent Colorado State Fair. So, while the AGT judges might love the new novel act it’s clear that there are many others that don’t and would like to see the technology stopped in its virtual tracks, although the likelihood of that happening is likely nil.