If you're interested in artificial intelligence and its applications within the virtual worlds space, you should definitely check out a startup called Virsona. The company's site involves a bunch of 'Virsonas' which, it says, are "virtual personas created to Reason, Remember and React just like a living, historical or fictional character". The idea is to have AI bots taking the roles of famous figures to talk to users (think educational potential), but also to let users turn themselves into a virtual persona.
There’s even a pitch for people creating Virsonas based on dead friends or family - a little creepy, if I’m honest - although the idea of creating one as yourself to give future descendants advice raised a smile ("Sorry about the state of the planet, kids...")
Founders Peter Hodge and Eric Rand have raised around $3 million of seed capital this year, and launched the beta Virsona site this week.
The company clearly has an eye for practical (i.e. money-making) applications, citing the example of making a Captain Kirk Virsona to promote a new Star Trek film.
However, the element that caught my attention was the potential for Virsona to license its AI engine to other companies. Right now, the Virsonas are text-based along the lines of the famous Alicebot, with you asking text questions and getting text replies. How much more exciting would this be if the company’s engine was wedded to 3D avatars within a virtual world? Hodge himself refers to this by saying “We want to give avatars in the virtual world artificial intelligence, not just a skin”.
One to watch, for sure. Although there’s still clearly work to be done. I asked the Abraham Lincoln Virsona what he thinks of George W. Bush (a predictable question for a virtual former US president, surely), and got this lengthy reply:
“Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me – take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever – but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man’s success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of Humanity – the Declaration of American Independence. Could you explain that in different words?”
I think he may be avoiding the question ;o)
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