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Back in June, Google launched a new AI experiment called “Portraits,” which provides AI-generated depictions of famous and/or inspirational people, that can offer conversational advice and notes in the voice of the person they’re based on.
As you can see in this example, Google’s current Portraits models enable you to speak with life coaches and business advisors, or at least, AI versions of them, which these creators have contributed to creating.
So rather than having to read, for example, all of Kim Scott’s books, and/or memorize key approaches, the system will give you easy access to relevant sections, based on Gemini’s understanding of your query.
Which could be helpful. Not as helpful as speaking to the actual person, but it’s essentially a way to scale their personalized advice, without the creators themselves having to speak to thousands of people.
And now, Google’s expanding this to YouTubers as well.
As per YouTube:
“Based on the feedback from the initial Portraits experiment, we’re expanding the feature to a small group of YouTube creators who have specifically chosen to participate. These creators have provided the content and sources that their Portraits are built on. U.S. viewers 18 years or older watching YouTube on desktop may see the option to ‘Talk to Creator’s Portrait’ on a participating creator’s channel, where viewers can engage with the creator’s Portrait by asking questions and exploring topics related to their content.”
So you may soon be able to interact with an AI version of MrBeast, and ask questions about how they’ve built their YouTube channel, with, presumably, customized answers built on the queries that are likely to come from YouTube creators.
I mean, I assume that’s who’s going to interact with these bots the most, but then again, there will also be fans who’ll want to ask questions of these bots. And they’ll probably be trained to respond to these types of queries as well, with Google’s generative AI systems making up answers in the style of the creator.
Though the same questions remains: “Will that actually be beneficial?”
Meta’s been working on similar, with AI chatbots created in the likeness of well known creators, so that people can interact with them, without actually engaging with the real person.
These are more specifically focused on fan interaction, and my criticism here would be that social media facilitates real connection, and enables people to actually get in touch with anybody, even major stars, through in-app interaction.
Does interacting with an AI version of that star have the same impact, or does it dilute the value of connection in this respect?
In some applications, I can see how this would have value, in offering insight into their process, etc.
But in terms of connection, replacing real humans with robots, in a format that simulates that engagement, seems like a step back.
But maybe, this YouTube version could be something, offering insight into the how and why of YouTube creation.
