Chatbot Conversations: A New Era of AI Communication

New York company Fantasy has developed scores of AI characters, known as synthetic humans, using machine learning technology similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. These synthetic humans are used to help businesses generate new product ideas, learn about audiences, and think through concepts. By feeding characteristics from ethnographic research into large language models, Fantasy creates bots that can converse about a client's offerings and even participate in focus groups alongside real people. The technology has shown promise in generating novel ideas and prompting creativity. However, experts caution that anthropomorphizing AI can have both powerful and problematic implications.