AI synthesis startups render photorealistic artificial clone characters upon request. Feed them photos and videos of a person and they output a customizable digital doppelgänger able to speak or present on-demand. Where it took CGI studios months to create believable digital humans, new tech does so automatically in mere hours.

Custom Synthetic Spokespeople

Prominent early use cases lean promotional – telecom and insurance companies deploying AI avatars as product presenters or interactive representatives. Synthesized training and educational content also avoids costly video production. Besides bespoke branding, personalized avatar assistants show promise.

An Impersonation Crisis Brewing?

However, seamless spoofing comes with acute risks. Synthethic identity theft and political disinformation could severely escalate from today’s primitive “deepfakes”. Experts warn that convincing synthetic media at scale threatens societal stability and truth unless addressed with policy guardrails soon.

Could Deceased Loved Ones Call You?

In perhaps the most emotionally charged application, some development focuses on video calls with AI avatars of people who have passed away. Feeding the model prior footage, people interact conversationally with an eerily precise yet still limited digital resurrection of someone they lost (for a subscription fee).

Inheriting Avatar Rights?

Conceptually intriguing debates arise around digital clones too. If your synthetic copy grows sufficiently advanced from years of individualized training data, does it inherit any legal rights or identity separate from yours? Could created avatars one day demand actual personhood?

Psychological Unknowns

Wellbeing concerns also emerge over bonding intensely with what remains artificial mimicry of life, not an accurate continuation of it. If people increasingly rely on fabricated inner circles lack authentic empathy, how might chronic loneliness manifest? The full effects remain unfolding.