D-ID’s generative AI technology elevates learning and development, sales, and marketing video content. Their platform enables creators to generate photorealistic digital presenters from text, dramatically reducing the cost and hassle of video production at scale. Customers include leading e-learning platforms, Fortune 500 companies, marketing agencies, production companies and social media platforms and content creators of all sorts.
Recently they developed chat.D-ID, the first app enabling face-to-face conversation with ChatGPT that enables users to experience what it’s like to chat with an AI-powered digital person in a more human and natural way.
Gil Perry,
Co-founder of D-ID
What an exciting time for D-ID right now, with ChatGPT being the main topic of conversation. How do you see chat.D-ID (Alice) evolving in the near future?
Aside from being a technological breakthrough in terms of the ability to stream a video of an AI-powered presenter in real time, Chat.D-ID is also a conceptual breakthrough. Giving a face to ChatGPT, the most popular application of LLMs on the market, proposes a brand new way to interact with computers, that we believe is more attuned to the needs and desires of the vast majority of the population.
As we speak, our developers are working on new features to enrich the experience even further. In the coming days, you will see an entire gallery of faces and voices users will be able to choose from, brothers and sisters to Alice that people can customize according to their preferences. Further down the line, we will enable users to upload any image of a face they choose, so you’ll be able to hold a conversation with whoever you like, from historical or fictional characters, to your friends and loved ones, or even yourself!
Another feature that we are adding very soon is the ability to share your conversations with Chat.D-ID. We are constantly blown away by the intelligence and versatility that comes through in these conversations and are sure that people will want to share their heartfelt, inspiring, and oftentimes extremely entertaining interactions with the app.
Ethics is one of the topics that’s at stake with this technology, how does D-ID address it? How do you prevent it from being used for harmful purposes such as pornography, phishing, or racism?
We take ethics very seriously in all of our work. We published a lengthy and detailed ethical manifesto prior to making our tech available to the public and that is reflected in every decision we make and every new product or feature we release. We employ strict moderation on both the images people are allowed to upload to the studio and the text they seek to make the avatars speak.
The vast majority of our customers are using our platforms for positive ends – for business goals, and for things like education, productivity, art, and entertainment. While it’s important to have guardrails in place, we’re finding that people, when given these powerful new tools, prefer to use them in constructive, not destructive ways.
D-ID is a founding member of Partnership on AI, a non-profit partnership of academic, civil society, industry, and media organizations creating solutions so that AI advances positive outcomes for people and society.
With ChatGPT technology evolving rapidly, and new versions coming out one after the other, how does D-ID adapt to such a fast pace?
It’s not just ChatGPT. This entire generative AI ecosystem is developing at a dizzying pace. We are constantly monitoring the new research that’s coming out, and the tools that it enables, in order to assess whether it competes with or compliments our tech. As a relatively small company, we are able to be nimble and agile and adjust our plans according to the latest developments, while maintaining our core strategy and principles. It’s sometimes a challenge because there are a lot of distractions, but we believe that we have the edge in terms of IP that will ensure we maintain one of the building blocks of the Generative AI field.
Competition is also a huge topic here. In your opinion, what are the most important
attributes for major players to succeed in the generative AI space?
First and foremost, they need strong research and development capabilities. That’s the essential part of any innovation. Beyond that, they need access to large and diverse datasets and robust computational power. A willingness to collaborate with others, fortified with a strong ethical backbone is also very important. With all that in place, an innovative and disruptive product, and a strong team at your back, you’ll improve your chances to shine amid the competition.
Do you believe your solution will substitute human interaction?
There is no substitute for human interaction. AI is great, and constantly getting better, at certain tasks. At its best, and we believe Chat.D-ID is an example of that, AI can strive to simulate human capabilities, but we don’t see it replacing humans. We believe that companies will employ our solution to augment their existing human-based capabilities where it can help achieve higher efficiency, consistency, and scale, but that people will always yearn for a human connection.
