- Google’s new portrait experience allows users to chat with AI avatars modeled on real experts.
- The first portrait of the project is Radical franchise Author Kim Scott.
- The avatar provides advice according to the real content of Scott and has been developed with its direct involvement.
Google is testing a tool to connect people to all kinds of experts, or at least their AI equivalents.
The new portrait feature, available in Google Labs, allows you to discuss one to one with AI avatars modeled from experts in real life and built with their contribution. The initial portrait is a facsimile of the AI of Radical franchise Author Kim Scott.
Think about it as a zoom call with a life coach who recently gave a successful Ted speech (and yes, the name is more than a little suggestive of the Harry Potter magic paintings).
If you are in the United States, you can register for portraits via Google Labs and, once approved, talk to Kim Scott now. You will hear his voice (or a clone ai in his voice) say hello, and you can chat right away. His expertise concerns leadership and management, so his portrait will focus on these subjects.
So, if you do not know how to give comments to your boss, navigate in complex working relationships or overcome impostor syndrome, it is your digital muse. The answers are built on his real work, filtered via the Gemini AI model of Google.
Above all, the portrait was developed with the comments and information of Scott. This means that ideas, the way of speaking and even her tone are all consistent with the way she would really behave in a real conversation.
AI does not really know you, but the answers (which can say or write) seem more suitable than a blog article and more personal than a YouTube video.
Speaking at Ai Kim Scott with Google Portraits, I was impressed by the realism of the voice and the choices of language in the way the AI spoke; It really looked like a real person unless you listen carefully.
On the other hand, the portrait is necessarily limited in what it will discuss. It is like when, as a child, you speak to a teacher focused on the laser plan on the lesson plan and will not be distracted by any attempt to go out.
Personal portraits
Google has not suggested that specific plans for other people to become portraits, but it is easy to imagine a whole stable of the IA avatars providing all kinds of expertise and with the man’s approval seal behind faces and voices.
You could speak to Neil Degrasse Tyson of the space, or Dolly Parton on how to write songs and make a show. Unlike other ways to imitate people with AI, such as smart guest prompts or the collection available from the IA character, you can count on these digital mentors to say things that the real person would be.
This is the bet that Google seems to make. Not that AI will replace human mentors, but that it could distribute their knowledge more uniformly and make it more accessible. You don’t need to agree with everything that AI says to appreciate the potential here.
And at least now you can say that Kim Scott told you how to be “a more booted leader without losing your humanity”.
