It is all starting to come together.
We have seen things building for years. Recent advancements in computing means we are entering an entirely new world. The digital arena will never be the same.
Artificial intelligence is amazing many of us. The progress we are seeing with images, video, and language is opening the door for an entirely new realm.
Part of that is what is being called digital twins. We are going to have a world full of digital humans.
Image generated by Ideogram
The Future Of The Internet
Over the past few years, we saw the rise of chatbots. By this, I am referring to the technology used by websites as customer service tools, long before the introduction of ChatGPT3. Obviously, the latter put everything into overdrive.
When going to a companies website looking for customer service. One of the options was to engage with the chatbot. This was AI trained on the frequently asked questions of the company to try and provide some answers. This helped to reduce the number of calls handled by humans.
This was the archaic predecessor to what is coming.
We are now seeing the ability to add images to the chatbot. Many of these are starting to take on human qualities, emulating the mannerisms of people.
Naturally, these people do not exist in reality. They are compute generated.
Here is where the potential expands greatly. As the technology improves, which it is doing at a rapid rate, we will see it spread even further in utiliy.
Some of the present use cases are:
We are also seeing the beginning stages of digital influencers. This could expand to the entertainment sector, where "actors" are nothing more than digital humans.
All of this equates to exponential growth. We are no longer limited by humans.
Digital Twin
Digital humans need not be completely generated. They can also represent each of us. In other words, every person could have its own digital twin that handles a host of online activities on behalf of the human.
Essentially, these will be digital assistants or virtual employees.
This is where the exponentiality occurs. We can see this scale to enormous levels. It is also extremely versatile.
The advantages is that these are available 24/7. There is no overtime to pay. The hour of productivity are seriously increased. This brings down the cost as the numbers of interactions/transaction are only limited by bandwidth.
Versatility enters in that they can easily switch languages, conversing in any language it is trained on. There is also the ability to transform the digital human to reflect whatever nationality or culture is necessary.
Consider this potential for a single person company that is operating on a global basis.
It Is You
Some might have a tough time wrapping their heads around this but this is going to be an extension of us.
Consider the concept of an AI personal assistant. This is designed (trained) to handle many of the tasks that were once had done.
The digital twin attends meetings on your behalf, interacting with others the same as you would. The difference is it records everything that takes place. Since it is trained, it handles things on your behalf.
This could apply to both business and personal affairs.
Of course, your digital twin is interacting with the AI of others. Each is approaching the interactions with their own interests. This is no different from any other meeting, as an example, where each takes something different away.
The digital twin could negotiate on your behalf. It can set meetings, monitor your schedule, and handle all expenses. Imagine never having to pay a bill again.
Naturally, the digital twin could also be an employee, earning for you. In fact, there could come a day when 100 of your twins are "sent to work" each day.
These are just some of the possibilities.