Hyper-Realistic AI Avatars Are Pushing 'Hologram' Concerts Further Than Ever
As digital avatar technology grows more lifelike, one producer says AI is being used to simulate details like skin tone changes and eye moisture, raising questions about the future of live performance.
Advances in digital avatar technology are enabling increasingly realistic recreations of musicians, living and deceased, for use in concert experiences, according to comments from industry figures.
Barney Wragg, chief executive of avatar concert producer Unit1 Studio, described in a recent interview efforts to use AI to simulate minute physical details in digital performers, including how tears evaporate in the eye between blinks and how subcutaneous blood flow causes skin tone to shift when a digital character smiles or laughs.
Digital avatars already feature in the entertainment landscape, with past examples including recreations of performers such as Tupac Shakur, Abba and Maria Callas. Wragg's company recently reported a substantial investment aimed at developing hyper-realistic avatar entertainment, with plans to roll out avatars of both living and deceased musicians for a wider range of hybrid concerts, building on the commercial success of Abba Voyage.
The technology underlying these avatar concerts relies on large video-screen projections rather than true three-dimensional holograms, creating an illusion of a live performer on stage. As the realism of these avatars increases, the trend has prompted broader discussion about the role of AI-generated performances relative to live, in-person musical experiences.
Sources
- The living dead: we can watch ‘Janis Joplin’ perform or reunite the Beatles, but who are the real winners here? — The Guardian — Culture
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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