Zoom’s upcoming feature of AI avatars to talk in meetings may also have a possibilty deep fakes

Zoom has announced an upcoming feature of AI avatar. Users can use AI clones of themselves to record specifically for Zoom clips. The feature will be released next year. 

The announcement of the AI avatar feature came out today on October 9th, at the Zoom annual dev conference.

The users will have to record a video of themselves first, to replicate themselves in a clone. Once the AI clone is created the users can later just type in the content which the AI version of themselves will generate the audio for in the user’s voice. The content will be lipsynced in the video where the digital clone does the talking.

It is to be noted that this feature is only for Zoom Clips in which users record and send short messages. In this case, users will have their AI in the short video notes.

Zoom is accounting for the possibility of deep fakes

Since the rise deep fake content is spreading on social media and many apps are taking measures to detect them, Zoom has also acknowledged the possibility of it.

“We will continue to review and add safeguards as needed in the future,” Hashim said. “We employ (…) technology to make it obvious when a clip is generated with an avatar, and (…) to help ensure the integrity of avatar-generated content.” Smita Hashim

The chief product officer at Zoom, Smita Hashim, said in the press briefing that the company will be handling the risk very carefully with advanced authentication strict usage policies, and watermarking technology. However, it is expected that the company will be more specific to the authentication and policies when the release is near.

On the other hand, the watermark that appears in the corner, as shown in the mockup of Zoom’s custom avatar feature, can easily be removed.

This could be the first step towards the “AI twin” vision of Zoom’s CEO

This announcement aligns with the vision of Zoom CEO who earlier mentioned his goal of AI twin with the Verge magazine. His ambition is to allow the AI twin to attend the meetings for Zoom users.

Zoom has also been actively incorporating AI assistance to increase the productivity of its users.

The custom AI Avatar feature will be launched by 2025 as Zoom’s AI Companion add-on. The feature will be priced at $12 per month. For users who won’t subscribe to this feature while having a paid Zoom subscription will be able to use the presets of Avatars and voices instead of creating their own.