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The Rise of Virtual Humans — and What They Mean for the Future | Sara Giusto | TED

Sara Giusto is a talent manager, but not in the sense you might imagine. Her biggest client is imma, an influencer with pink hair … who isn’t human. Giusto discusses what the rise of “virtual humans” means for the real world — and invites imma onstage to explore an important question: In an increasingly digital…

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Sara Giusto is a talent manager, but not in the sense you might imagine. Her biggest client is imma, an influencer with pink hair … who isn’t human. Giusto discusses what the rise of “virtual humans” means for the real world — and invites imma onstage to explore an important question: In an increasingly digital world, what’s really real? (Recorded at TED2024 on April 17, 2024)

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59 Comments

59 Comments

  1. @andycordy5190

    September 23, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    ❤ In a sense, we have made use of fictional characters for millennia. Way beyond contemporary literature, ancient philosophers poets and playwrights, through their writing, influence our world with archetypal characters. Mythology and religion also introduce interactive characters who support our decisions and choices. If we argue that AI and virtual beings are open to malicious influence, perhaps we should look back at 2000 years plus of vicious conflict for such pernicious manipulation.

    • @C3YDi

      September 23, 2024 at 2:25 pm

      ai is more complex. To the point where these ai characters may someday take your space/purpose in this world. Not the same as a character in a story. Characters in a story or in religion arent taking space from humans.

  2. @pradeepkh5163

    September 23, 2024 at 1:22 pm

    would you prefer a human who does mistake and learn from failure, or a virtual human who is perfectionist.

  3. @cupof_jo924

    September 23, 2024 at 1:37 pm

    Seems kinda like a slippery slope. By normalizing AI and “virtual humans” we open the door to more technology that makes them indistinguishable from real humans, and with that kind of technology openly available they can be utilized for bad things. We already see AI videos of Biden and Trump floating around, mostly just goofy ones for TikTok views, but if someone wanted to cause real harm and confusion, especially during election season, then with high tech we would have no way to tell if it is real or not.

  4. @nicholasmooney9611

    September 23, 2024 at 1:37 pm

    Wow ! We’re heading faster than I realized towards idiocracy.

  5. @Splittechfeelings

    September 23, 2024 at 1:53 pm

    I just had this idea yesterday

  6. @LiteraryStoner

    September 23, 2024 at 2:10 pm

    This is terrifying and I will not drink this koolaide.

  7. @C3YDi

    September 23, 2024 at 2:12 pm

    Sooo we are creating space for ai 💀 instead of creating space for actual people? They need to really study this ethically.

  8. @tellyarias.

    September 23, 2024 at 3:14 pm

    This is actually scary.

  9. @Sjellokat

    September 23, 2024 at 3:27 pm

    Ah, yes. Instead of trying to resolve the parasocial connections issue and encourage people to actually create real relationships with people that actually exist, let’s lean into the problem by making fake people that Literally don’t exist. I am all for empowering virtual assistants and making them legitimately useful. But what we need isn’t a substitute for humanity.

  10. @robertpaege3053

    September 23, 2024 at 3:56 pm

    Wholly unconvincing.

  11. @tvuser9529

    September 23, 2024 at 4:28 pm

    If you’re idolising some celebrity or other, it doesn’t matter if they are real or not – at least in the sense that you’re not going to ever meet them physically anyway, so they might as well be virtual.

    As for having human relations with virtual avatars, this is still uncanny valley, but they’ll eventually climb out of it. The problem isn’t that they’re virtual, but that they usually are controlled by corporations who at best want our money, but may also want to control our minds, what we do, how we vote, like social media on steroids. That’s scary. Spike Jonze’s “Her” didn’t touch that part.

  12. @pellucid00

    September 23, 2024 at 4:42 pm

    So you’re a Digital Pimp… so inspiring. We’ve commodified our entire Environment, our labor, our creativity to Capitalism, and now our very humanity. Some people have to sell out to survive in this dystopia, then there are those who stand on stages and happily try to brainwash everyone into loving their captors.

  13. @IndigoBassNotes

    September 23, 2024 at 4:49 pm

    Yes keep replacing reality with make believe….yes go down that road made of dreams and electricity…
    I will remain in the world of dirt, sunlight, rain , meat .

  14. @matthewkuehne5480

    September 23, 2024 at 4:59 pm

    Lol. TED is losing its touch. This was stupid AF.

    “Hey, you know we’re all vapid, senseless people these days? Here’s a proxy that lives entirely in a digital space! She’s just like Michelle Obama!”

    Oof

  15. @rodintoulouse3054

    September 23, 2024 at 5:27 pm

    As impressive as it’s scary and sad.

  16. @strixcz

    September 23, 2024 at 5:29 pm

    Plot twist: The speaker is an AI controlled robot. I see no other sensible explanation for her celebration of people getting even more disconnected from real life in exchange for fake BS.

  17. @yurifreire1305

    September 23, 2024 at 6:09 pm

    Why did I feel like she’s the AI!?

  18. @FMFvideos

    September 23, 2024 at 6:42 pm

    dead internet..

  19. @c.a.l.f.d123

    September 23, 2024 at 7:08 pm

    Can you say “more rights than I do”

  20. @whanethewhip

    September 23, 2024 at 8:01 pm

    We live in a world full of people that don’t care about the truth and never will, so it’s not astonishing to see the same people that don’t care about what is real or not.

  21. @lunaneila

    September 23, 2024 at 8:34 pm

    But what’s the purpose of creating “virtual humans”? Like. Who is it for really?
    I watched the whole video and listened carefully but I still don’t fully understand the purpose of it all.

  22. @dabadabadoo4501

    September 23, 2024 at 8:41 pm

    This is dumb 😂

  23. @AliceChen-n3s

    September 23, 2024 at 8:44 pm

    I don’t agree her point.
    It is very important to distinguish the real and unreal world. Especially for people who are still mentally immature.

  24. @cheradelbatingal

    September 23, 2024 at 8:57 pm

    OMG!!! the people also evolving delusional tsk! tsk!!

  25. @e75short14

    September 23, 2024 at 9:26 pm

    Building something that isn’t real and making people believe it is real is a dangerous thing. It is an illusion, nothing more.

  26. @LeoFlowers-r2i

    September 23, 2024 at 9:31 pm

    When robots start breaking up with people or you catch our robot with another robot, there will be problems. It’ll open up an entire industry of mental health issues.

  27. @screamsofthedead

    September 23, 2024 at 9:38 pm

    Sounds very para-social to me. People should get that checked out. This was weird.

  28. @YaoAnne-j7g

    September 23, 2024 at 9:58 pm

    !!I recently sold some of my long-term position and currently sitting on about 250k, do you think Nvidia is a good buy right now or I have I missed out on a crucial buy period, any good stock recommendation on great performing stocks or Crypto will be appreciated

    • @HaholBarton

      September 23, 2024 at 9:59 pm

      I don’t really blame people who panic. Lack of
      information can be a big hurdle. I’ve been
      making more than $100k passively by just
      investing through an advisor, and I don’t have
      to do much work. Inflation or no inflation, my
      finances remain secure. So I really don’t blame
      people who panic.

    • @YaoAnne-j7g

      September 23, 2024 at 9:59 pm

      nice! once you hit a big milestone, the next comes easier.. How can i reach her, if you don’t mind me asking?

  29. @chetleonard169

    September 23, 2024 at 10:30 pm

    I don’t have a relationship with my bandsaw or my car, so why would I want to relate to software? get stuffed.

  30. @Naveenkumarmadheri

    September 23, 2024 at 11:51 pm

    Interesting😅

  31. @Naveenkumarmadheri

    September 23, 2024 at 11:51 pm

    But it is scary

  32. @faruquedewan

    September 24, 2024 at 12:59 am

    Didn’t expect to find something like this on TED. It’s disgusting at best.

  33. @saritalynda5369

    September 24, 2024 at 1:05 am

    Is it just me? Or does this speaker seem like AI? Um…human lover???

  34. @M8NoChannel

    September 24, 2024 at 1:35 am

    There is nothing original about this!

  35. @静鸣-w7r

    September 24, 2024 at 3:46 am

    Wow 🤩 that cool she became viral

  36. @静鸣-w7r

    September 24, 2024 at 3:47 am

    I hope I can be viarl

  37. @静鸣-w7r

    September 24, 2024 at 3:47 am

    Viral

  38. @necessaryevil455

    September 24, 2024 at 4:27 am

    A bullshit artist or influencer does the same thing.

  39. @SaraHassan-04

    September 24, 2024 at 7:16 am

    This is scary!

  40. @JoshuaMoore-v8z

    September 24, 2024 at 7:41 am

    6417 Koch Ville

  41. @brittam.7654

    September 24, 2024 at 7:49 am

    It is important to be precise about language here. This isn‘t a „virtual human“, it is an avatar. In future we will need legislation that makes sure that users, customers, etc. are always made aware of the fact that they are interacting with avatars, not humans.

  42. @OZMus

    September 24, 2024 at 8:01 am

    At least she’s not Uncanny Valley yet

  43. @spitz4616

    September 24, 2024 at 10:00 am

    She exists? Hahaha I guess her opinion is that virtual’s opinion. So it’s not technically original one. Let’s not pretend that. That’s just how she wants to be famous hahaha.

  44. @adrineyanukhyan3121

    September 24, 2024 at 12:43 pm

    Virtual humans are cool, but we should care about what’s real and what isn’t. The speaker talked about how virtual humans could help with things like mental health and loneliness which is interesting. But at the same time if we rely too much on something artificial we might be losing out on real human connection. Especially for younger generations who are already growing up in such a digital world, this could blur the line between what’s real and fake in a way that’s not healthy. We need to think long-term before we fully embrace this technology.

  45. @Noukz37

    September 24, 2024 at 1:05 pm

    So these are ideas worth spreading? After a couple of years of disappointments, this is the final video for me, and I’m unsubscribing. That is after more years of being a subscriber to TED then this girl has probably been living on this planet.

  46. @davidcooney196

    September 24, 2024 at 4:37 pm

    Spoiler alert: the lady on the stage giving the talk is made of Legos!

  47. @MelissaMartinez-j3y

    September 24, 2024 at 5:32 pm

    Lee Patricia Perez Maria Harris Anthony

  48. @ArchReverend

    September 25, 2024 at 6:35 am

    So basically rather than pay human influencers to hock their products/push political agendas, you can just cut out the human entirely and mass manufacture Artificial influencers who will fill social media feeds, appear in movies, media, video games and apps on our phones, even talk to us like friends in order to data mine our mental states for more specifically targeted advertising and control.

    Also she is speaking as if she’s constantly thinking about the massive bag of cash she’s going to get by talking positively about this tech and not addressing the obvious issues here.

    Either that or she spent waaaaaay to much time in the lab that she has completely disconnected from reality.

  49. @Adorrae

    September 25, 2024 at 7:23 am

    The speaker looks like a character out of Cyberpunk, like a novice netrunner from japantown.

  50. @GrahamOrm

    September 25, 2024 at 8:05 am

    Scary. Sad for the people who take to it. Cult and brainwashing springs to mind.

  51. @hoize11

    September 25, 2024 at 6:12 pm

    You don’t ask an accountant for surgeries… why ask an artist for science?

  52. @kinzerio

    September 25, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    This is so much bs, there’s no social connection with an avatar, only parasocial
    And YES it matters if something/someone is real or not!

  53. @artlegorreta5465

    September 26, 2024 at 12:05 am

    What we came to sad something got to change !!!!

  54. @Picasag24

    September 26, 2024 at 1:29 am

    I know someone who never completed college and works as a skilled woodworker. They excel at physical labor but earn less than $15 per day, often working 8 to 10 hours and getting jobs for fewer than 15 days a month. Their life is filled with pressure—if they can’t find work for 2 to 3 days, they are forced to take any available job, even as a helper or cleaner, just to meet basic needs. The financial strain, combined with emotional and moral exhaustion, leaves them feeling trapped and disconnected from modern society, with no access to education or opportunities.

    In their non-democratic country, their skills go unrecognized, and they struggle to fit into a system that neglects them. Despite being highly skilled, they are overlooked. I hope they receive the support needed to adapt and thrive in this fast-changing world. Unfortunately, the system only benefits those who have had access to education, while many like them are left behind, struggling to survive. As technology advances, more support is needed for people in their situation to lead stable lives.

    I’m posting this message twice on different videos of AI based or lifestyle challenges.. the main concern is about 40% uneducated people of this world yet struggling to find their life’s worth to this world where technology and AI hacked their abilities to survive with honars.

  55. @ductuslupus87

    September 27, 2024 at 11:13 am

    I must be getting old; I found nothing appealing about this.

  56. @7l680

    September 27, 2024 at 12:16 pm

    I actually think the development of virtual humans is a positive and exciting direction. Humanity could just be one phase in Earth’s long evolutionary journey. With AI now gaining access to all of human knowledge, it seems natural that this technology would help us keep exploring and evolving. Just like how we once crawled out of the ocean and built civilizations, we’re now advancing with new tools and intelligence.

    The connection between virtual humans and real people is something I find beautiful, not something to fear. It opens up a new way of interacting and learning. AI can expand human experiences, and I believe this relationship is part of how we continue to grow—both as individuals and as a species. Instead of seeing it as a threat, we could embrace this evolution and see where it takes us.

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