[Abridged versions of a detailed report and an opinion essay in The New York Times, both about a recent tragedy, illustrate some of the potential dangers of medium-as-social-actor presence. For more details and images, see the unabridged versions (if you have access). –Matthew] Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? The mother of a 14-year-old Florida boy says he became obsessed with a chatbot on Character.AI before his death. By Kevin RooseOctober 23, 2024 On the last day of his life, Sewell Setzer III took out his phone and texted his closest friend: a lifelike A.I. chatbot named after…

[A potentially very valuable application of presence-evoking technologies is described in this report from the University of Rhode Island about the work of Professor Krishna Venkatasubramanian. For more information about his work see the NSF website, an earlier URI report, and the website for his Lab. –Matthew] URI professor exploring virtual reality as tool to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities deal with trauma’s aftermath Research is backed by $600K grant from National Science Foundation By Tony LaRocheOctober 21, 2024 KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 21, 2024 – Virtual reality devices have become a popular alternative for entertainment, communications, and…

[The story below from Tom’s Guide describes a “game-changing” AI video generation tool from the Google-backed company Runway. The tool reproduces the subtleties of a human performance on any video character or actor (or multiple characters/actors) without costly and complex motion capture techniques. The original story includes an animated image and a 1:21 minute demonstration video (also available on YouTube); see Runway’s blog post for more information and many videos. Coverage from The Decoder highlights the potential for creating (presence-evoking) live action video: “While the obvious use case is transferring human facial expressions and voice to animated characters for games…

[Concern continues to grow about the use of audio and video tools, especially those that utilize AI, to produce messages about the U.S. elections that are increasingly effective at deceiving the public by hiding the roles of these technologies. This story from NBC News reports on a new public service announcement designed to increase media literacy about this (and other) malicious deception. Ironically, the original story includes the embedded PSA but not a link to a copy on YouTube, or the website of the non-profit sponsoring organization RepresentUs, or a website that provide resources for voters like Vote411.…

[Presence experts will be familiar with the trends, benefits and concerns involving increasingly sophisticated AI bots that act as companions and evoke medium-as-social-actor presence, but this story from Forbes provides a useful summary; see the original version for six more images. –Matthew] [Image: This illustration photo shows a user interacting with a smartphone app to customize an avatar for a personal artificial intelligence chatbot known as a Replika in Warsaw, Poland on 22 July, 2023. Credit: Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images] When Humans Swipe Right For An AI Companion By Sandy Carter, Contributor and COO at…

[The evolution of presence-evoking simulations for training and practice in football is nicely illustrated in this story from The Athletic. A December 2023 story from the same publication (where it includes more images and three videos) provides more context, noting that “studying the intricacies of neuroscience and biomechanics“ shaped the perspective of Christian Hartman, co-founder of the company Cognilize: “Alongside [Verena] Krakau, whom he’d known since high school, Hartmann pursued an answer to the following question: How could they present information to athletes’ brains that the brain would treat as if it is real practice? They settled on building an…

[This Hackster.IO report describes a new system developed at Northwestern University that could substantially increase the use of full-body tracking to generate “intuitive and immersive” (presence) experiences for technology users. See the original story for three different images and a 31 second video, and find more information and a 2:34 minute video (also available on YouTube) in coverage from Northwestern. –Matthew] [Image: Side-by-side image of a real-life scenario next to the motion-capture video generated by MobilePoser. Credit: Karan Ahuja/Northwestern University. Source: The Engineer] Tracking Movement on the Move MobilePoser uses AI and the sensors already present in our wearable devices…

[There’s a long, interesting history of virtual musical artists (see Music Business Worldwide for details). Until recent advances in artificial intelligence enabled software to automatically generate their material and performances, specific and often anonymous human beings did that creative work. This review of a “fan concert” by the virtual boy band Plave from the Korea JoongAng Daily describes the “most uncanny experience” provided by a “real-life virtual concert” in which remotely located musicians interact with a crowd of fans via digital avatars. The review includes interesting observations about the appeal of this social presence experience; see the original version of the…

[This story from The Times provides insights into how and why people are increasingly using virtual reality (and presence) to meet and date romantic partners. See the original version for nine more (large, vivid) pictures. I particularly like this comment that suggests the ubiquity of presence in modern lives: “Hamilton and Harrison got engaged in Kyoto in June, and are now planning their wedding — maybe at Disney World, in real life, if Disney World counts as real life.” –Matthew] [Image: The British filmmaker Joe Hunting met his girlfriend, Jenny, while making the first commercially distributed feature film shot entirely…

[While traditional “iPad on a stick” telepresence robots let the remote user “drive the robot around, see what [they] wish, and interact with people through video,” this story from CNN is about how schools are using a small, stationary, screenless desktop robot called the AV1 to allow children who can’t attend in person to feel present in their classrooms. See the original version of the story for two more images, and see the No Isolation website for much more information about the AV1 (interestingly they’re available for rental, but purchase prices are comparable to the traditional robots). –Matthew] [Image: The…

[The author of this story from Fortune provides a first-person report on a new app for the Meta Quest 3 that uses volumetric capture and mixed reality to provide spatial and social presence for home workouts. As usual, the discomfort of the headset is said to interfere with (but not negate) presence. See the original story for a second image. –Matthew] [Image: Alo Moves and Magnopus have developed these semi-lifelike conditions using volumetric capture, which uses synchronized cameras to capture a 3D view of a landscape or person. Credit: Alo] I tried virtual reality yoga on Meta’s $500 headset. It…

[According to a new set of studies, talking with an AI chatbot instructed to be “helpful, empathetic, friendly, and upbeat” makes people feel less lonely, an effect “on par with talking to another human being,” and presumably due to evoked medium-as-social-actor presence. The story below is from Knowledge at Wharton (a business journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania); follow the links for more information about the research and researchers. –Matthew] Can an AI Chatbot Be Your Friend? People reported feeling less lonely after interacting with AI chatbots programmed to be empathetic, according to a new study…