Synthesia’s experimental Selfie Avatars offer a glimpse into the future of avatar customization

Today, we’re thrilled to introduce an experimental feature that will take the AI avatar experience to the next level: Selfie Avatars. With just a few images of yourself, you can create a custom avatar that opens up new possibilities for expression and communication.

This feature marks an exciting milestone for Synthesia as we continue to innovate and shape the next generation of AI avatars coming later this year.

Let’s dive into what this feature is all about, how it works, and the safeguards we’ve built into the system to ensure it’s safe and inclusive for everyone.

A sneak peek into the future of avatars

The Selfie Avatar feature is part of our vision to give users more control and creative freedom over their digital identities. After uploading a small set of selfies, you’ll be able to prompt for your avatar in any outfit or physical environment. Then, you can use the avatar to generate short-form video clips by recording a voiceover. 

This experimental release is your chance to be part of this journey and provide valuable feedback that will help shape the evolution of AI avatars. But this is just the beginning; in the near future, our new EXPRESS-2 model will allow users to control even more of their avatars’ performance, including body language.

Being transparent about the technical limitations

As with any experimental technology, there are some limitations. While we’ve worked hard to make Selfie Avatars as accurate and realistic as possible, you might encounter occasional issues during the generation process. For example:

• The avatar may not always capture your physical likeness perfectly.
• There may be instances where details like facial expressions or proportions differ slightly from your expectations.

We want to be upfront about these limitations because your feedback during this phase is essential. Your insights will help us refine the technology and ensure that the final version of this feature exceeds expectations.

Building a safe and responsible platform

At Synthesia, we take the responsible development of AI seriously. With the launch of this experimental feature, we’ve invested heavily in red teaming efforts to identify and mitigate potential risks, including working with Risky Business Solutions—a team of experts in trust and safety-related issues. 

Here’s how we’re ensuring a safe and positive experience for everyone:

1. Prevention of harmful content: We’ve implemented robust safeguards and new policies to prevent the generation of hate symbols, nudity, sexually explicit content, and other harmful materials. This ensures that our platform remains inclusive and respectful.
2. Impersonation controls: We’ve designed the system to minimize the risk of impersonation, protecting individuals from unauthorized use of their likeness. For example, we’re the only platform to require a biometric consent flow during the Selfie Avatar creation process, which minimizes the risk of non-consensual deepfakes.
3. AI bias mitigations: Image generators amplify bias in gender and race, despite efforts to improve the quality of the data sets and models producing these results. We’ve taken steps to fine-tune the third party image generator we’re using during the avatar creation process but we know that our system isn’t perfect.
4. Responsible AI principles: Our development process is guided by a commitment to responsible AI practices, ensuring that our technology benefits society while minimizing potential misuse.

Join us on this journey

The Selfie Avatars feature represents a glimpse into the future of digital identity and customization. While it’s still in an experimental phase, we’re excited to invite you to try it out, share your thoughts, and help us shape what’s next.

We’re eager to hear your feedback, whether it’s about the quality of the avatar, your overall experience, or how we can improve the feature. Together, we can create a platform that’s not only innovative, but also safe, ethical, and empowering for everyone.

Head over to Synthesia today to create your Selfie Avatar and become part of the future of personalized AI technology. We can’t wait to see where this journey takes us—and you.

Your feedback is invaluable to us. Try out Selfie Avatars today for free and share the results on Instagram, X, YouTube or TikTok, tagging Synthesia (on X, Instagram or TikTok) in your posts.