Chinese Company Lets You Make a Deepfake ‘Digital Human’ for $145
A leading Chinese technology company is allowing users to create artificially intelligent (AI) deepfake “digital humans” based on any individual within 24 hours for $145.
Chinese Tech giant Tencent has announced a new service that lets anyone make a high-definition digital human of any individual with just three minutes of live-action video and 100 sentences of voice material.
On Friday, Tencent confirmed that its subsidiary Tencent Cloud had launched its new deepfake creation service to The Register.
The Deepfake-as-a-Service, (DFaaS) costs $145 (1,000 yuan) and takes just 24 hours to create. The service is available in both Chinese and English.
The Register reports that these digital humans can be purchased as “half bodies” or “full bodies” with flexible gestures and movements tailored to the required content.
The digital humans come in several styles, including 3D realistic, 3D cartoon, 3D semirealistic, 2D cartoon, and 2D real person.
The service also reportedly allows certain elements, like the background and the tone of the individual, to be customized.
The company also promises that the digital humans will not have flat intonation and a single speech rhythm. Tencent Cloyd reportedly does this using an in-house small-sample timbre customization technology that relies on deep-learning acoustic models and neural network vocoders.
‘An AI Human Factory’
Chen Lei, general manager of Tencent Cloud Intelligent Digital Human Products, says the company is hoping to make a fully-automated “AI+ Digital Intelligent Human Factory” platform where individuals can simply use self-service to order digital humans.
According to Tencent Cloud, the deepfake creations could be used to run live-stream infomercials which are a popular form of advertising in China. Users can change the recording background, making it suitable for use in several commercial scenarios, including live streaming.
However, the company also believes that the deepfakes could be used to represent “doctors, lawyers, and other professionals” in the country in the future.
China has been at the forefront of the production of AI-powered deepfake video technology. In March, China’s state-owned news outlet People Daily unveiled its latest digital news anchor, an AI-powered “woman” called “Ren Xiaorong” that delivers news 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“For 365 days, 24 hours, I will be reporting news for the whole year, round the clock, without rest,” Xiarong says in a promotion video.
Image credits: Header photo sourced via Jiemian.
