The Japanese start-ups developing digital doubles to do our routine tasks – ‘more personal than ChatGPT’ – and ‘cute’ AI singers, and why the West may not embrace them
- Tokyo start-up Alt’s founder imagines a time when we will all have a digital ‘clone’ to take on routine tasks. An observer thinks the West may find them scary
- Another start-up has created synthesised singers it calls Vocaloids. But its founder admits such an innovation may be seen as too cutesy outside Japan
Kazutaka Yonekura dreams of a world where everyone will have their very own digital “clone” – an online avatar that could take on some of our work and daily tasks, such as appearing in Zoom meetings in our place.
Yonekura, chief executive of Tokyo start-up Alt, believes it could make our lives easier and more efficient.
His company is developing a digital double, an animated image that looks and talks just like its owner. The digital clone can be used, for example, by a recruiter to carry out preliminary job interviews, or by a doctor to screen patients ahead of check-ups.
“This liberates you from all the routine (tasks) that you must do tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and the day after that,” Yonekura says as he shows off his double – a thumbnail video image of him on the computer screen, with a synthesised version of his voice.
When his digital clone is asked “What kind of music do you like”, it pauses for several seconds, then goes into a long-winded explanation about Yonekura’s fondness for energetic rhythmical music such as hip hop or rock ’n’ roll.