In a bid to alleviate the fatigue of back-to-back online meetings, Zoom is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to create “digital clones” that can attend video conferences for users.
Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, disclosed in an interview with The Verge that the company is working on “digital-twin technology.” This technology aims to enable users to create a “deepfake avatar” that can join Zoom meetings and make decisions on their behalf, allowing them to focus on other tasks.
“I can send a digital version of myself to join so I can go to the beach. Or I do not need to check my emails; the digital version of myself can read most of the emails,” Yuan explained.
Yuan emphasized the potential of AI to reduce the time spent on routine tasks such as phone calls, emails, and meetings. “You do not need to spend so much time [in meetings]. You do not have to have five or six Zoom calls every day. You can leverage the AI to do that,” he said.
The goal is to give users more time for in-person interactions and personal activities. “Why not spend more time with your family? Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right? Today, the reason why we cannot do that is because every day is busy, five days a week,” Yuan added.
Besides handling Zoom calls, the planned digital clones would manage other workloads such as messaging, phone calls, emails, whiteboard, coding, creative tasks, manager tasks, and project management. However, Yuan acknowledged that this ambitious goal might take some time to realize. “I think in a few years, we’ll get there, but we’re just at the beginning,” he noted.
Addressing concerns about AI replacing human interactions, Yuan stressed the irreplaceable value of face-to-face contact. “If I stop by your office, let’s say I give you a hug, you shake my hand, right? I think AI cannot replace that. We still need to have in-person interaction. That is very important,” he said.