At the CES show Neon (backed by Samsung) showed off its Neon virtual humans. Press response (Engadget, Wired) was somewhat muted and sceptical, the main takeaways appear to be:
- Visuals are good, but really just a version of deep fake, and with uncanny valley issues
- Voice (TTS) is poor quality
- Chatbot engine is pretty basic
- Much of the viral video (eg still above) is actors, not even the Neon avatars!
So, see how far they've got by CES2021 then!