Samsung's mysterious 'artificial human' project Neon creates lifelike AI

Not everyone is convinced by the ‘creepy and deformed’ avatars

Leaked footage of Samsung's Neon project reveals incredibly realistic 'artificial humans ' (Neon)

Samsung has developed artificial intelligence avatars that are virtually indistinguishable from real humans, according to leaked footage of the firm’s secretive Neon project.

Developed by Samsung Technology and Advanced Research Lab in the US, it the latest artificial intelligence platform developed by the South Korean technology giant and appears to be the most human-like AI ever created.

The official unveiling is set to take place at CES in Las Vegas on Tuesday, though a full promo video was discovered within the source code of the Neon website.

Samsung dismissed rumours that Neon has anything to do with the company’s artificial assistant Bixby, stating that the project is unlike “anything you have seen before”.​

One of the engineers working on the project, Pranav Mistry, revealed ahead of the launch that the technology can “autonomously create new expressions, new movements, new dialogue (even in Hindi), completely different from the original captured data.”

Not everyone was convinced by the realism of the avatar, with Twitter users describing them variously as “creepy and deformed“ and “weird“.

It is unclear what Samsung plans to use the technology for, though some speculate it could prove useful for online customer service, or to act as virtual receptionists at hotels and other establishments. It may even explore virtual reality settings, which is how other tech firms plan to use lifelike avatars.

In March 2019, Facebook announced its Codec Avatars project, which aims to allow people to create realistic versions of themselves using 3D capture technology.

The idea is to use these avatars within virtual reality worlds, meaning Facebook users could connect with friends and family in a three-dimensional social network. It is something referred to as “social presence”, and is reminiscent of the fictional worlds inhabited within the sci-fi novel Ready Player One.

Facebook claims the avatars would help “social connections in virtual reality become as natural and common as those in the real world”, and could be experienced using hardware built by its VR subsidiary Oculus.

Right now, proximity determines whom we have relationships with,” said Yaser Sheikh, the director of research at Facebook Reality Labs.

“The real promise of augmented reality and virtual reality is that it lets us spend time with whomever we wish and build meaningful relationships no matter where people live.”