Zoom's CEO has shared his vision of AI-powered avatars that can represent and make decisions for their human counterparts, such as attending meetings we're unable to make ourselves.
He referred to these AI versions of us as "digital twins", a term already used to describe virtual representations of real-world objects or systems. Moreover, he imagines multiple such digital copies could be made of ourselves with the potential to simultaneously communicate and make decisions for us on Zoom and elsewhere without us even needing to be present.
Not only did Yuan reveal his vision of semi-autonomous clones taking up seats in future Zoom conference calls, but he also discussed the possibility of adding a virtual reality dimension to the company's communication and collaboration platform.
Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom sat down with the US technology news publication, The Verge, and painted a picture of how the future of digital twins could look: “Your digital twins, multiple digital twins, are different based on your training.
One digital twin is really more like a sales expert; another digital twin of yourself is more like an engineering expert."
Yuan continues: "I think the interface is Zoom’s interface. However, how to manage that is very different. That’s the reason why I like crypto technology. It’s more like fully distributed."
“I do not think you can store the digital twin of yourself to our server. You will store it somewhere you feel very safe, likely maybe on the edge, on your phone, desktop, or maybe somewhere you trust more, like where you store your Bitcoin.”
The Digital Twins of Tomorrow
Zoom’s CEO said he is already looking at ways in which Zoom Workplace could utilise a digital twin to automate various work processes like checking and replying to your emails.
He even visualised receiving a reply from somebody who is notifying him that his digital twin is not effectively replying to a message they had sent him.
