AI-powered avatar at tech show touted as 'artificial human'

Avatars touted as "artificial humans" created a buzz Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show even as debate swirled on what exactly the digital entities were. Star Labs, a startup funded by Samsung, showed the painstakingly detailed AI-powered, two-dimensional digital creations to a large crowd, saying they are able to "converse and sympathize" like real people. A demonstration at CES showed conversations and gestures from the digital creations modeled after real humans. According to the California-based unit of the South Korean company, the technology allows for the creation of customized digital beings that can appear on displays or video games and could be designed to be "TV anchors, spokespeople, or movie actors" or even "companions and friends." Pranav Mistry, chief executive of the lab, said the creations known as NEONs are modeled after people but can show highly detailed expressions and gestures, and even new characteristics that can be programmed. "They look very human, in part because they are modeled after a human," but can even speak in languages the person hadn't spoken before, Mistry said.