Is the “person” you’re talking to on that kiosk screen an actual human? Or a metahuman?

There’s nothing particularly new about virtual humans answering inquiries, providing customer service or attempting to resolve problems. But that type of entity is getting more and more real, in terms of its appearance, behavior and fount of knowledge. In fact, we’re entering the age of the “metahuman,” a voice-enabled interface that’s meant to engage users with “human-like” empathy and understanding. It even possesses “emotional intelligence,” according to Ivan Lau, founder of Pantheon Lab and our guest on this episode. He explains how artificial intelligence, and especially large language models, are making possible digital humans that can detect, interpret and respond to human emotions in real time. We discuss where and when these metahumans will begin popping up, what they’ll be able to do, and how they might be accepted (or not) by actual humans. Are we looking to the end of true person-to-person communication? Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.