Google wants to turn you into an AI avatar
Actually useful or uncanny valley material? You decide.
AI is now all around us, and soon it might even… become us. Google is seemingly readying itself to launch a feature in its Gemini app for Android that will enable you to generate a three-dimensional avatar with your likeness.
Enter the Matrix
Noticed by the eagle-eyed tinkerers over at Android Authority, the new feature is situated right inside the v17.4.66 beta version of the Google app. There's a new aptly-named Characters menu, and once you go inside, the app should allow you to create a 3D avatar of yourself. It would probably appear very similar to the ones generated by the Likeness feature used on the Galaxy XR or the Persona one on the Apple Vision Pro headset.
How would the app generate your avatar? Put simply, by urging you to take a quick selfie video, which would then be used as the basis for your 3D avatar. You would also be able to edit or remove previously generated avatars of yourself. Of course, as pretty much all Android phones out there are devoid of the specialized array of sensors found on the Galaxy XR headset, the visual accuracy of your 3D avatar probably won't be flawless.
Would you let a 3D avatar appear instead of you in a video call?
Still, one key question remains: what benefit would the average Android user have from this 3D avatar functionality that might or might not arrive soon bundled with the Google app and the Gemini assistant?
At the moment, it's largely unclear, but it could be speculated that your 3D avatar might hop on video calls instead of you when you don't feel like showing your real face with the selfie camera. You'd remain in the call, but with your camera off, yet the other parties will still see something that resembles you. The avatar will probably use Gemini hand-holding to be properly animated when you're talking during the video call, like AI-assisted motion capture of sorts, but of course, that's pure speculation on my part.
Has the potential to be useful
I'm generally wary of AI-assisted technology, like most people should be, but this potential new feature might turn out to be moderately useful. There have been multiple times when I haven't felt comfortable turning on my camera during video calls, and I'm certain many might share the same sentiment.
On the other hand, a wider adoption of this technology definitely feeds my phobia of uncanny-valley subjects, and talking to a friend's 3D avatar during a video call isn't something I'd be 100% comfortable doing on the regular. Especially if it looks like something straight out of Attack on Titan.
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