TikTok Announces Symphony Digital Avatars for Creators and Brands
TikTok / Symphony
After several months of testing, TikTok has announced Symphony Digital Avatars, which are generative AI avatars of real people. There are two types:
Stock Avatars: These are prebuilt avatars created using paid actors, available across different backgrounds and nationalities, and in 30 languages.
Custom Avatars: These are developed to represent a creator or brand spokesperson. Creators can use their likeness, while brands can use their IP, spokesperson, or partnered creator to build their avatars.
TikTok has also announced TikTok Symphony AI Dubbing, a tool that allows creators and brands to translate their content into over 10 languages and dialects. It detects the original language, transcribes, translates, and produces a dubbed video in the selected language.
Why It Matters: With advancements in AI technology, virtual influencers and digital avatars on social media have become more common, prompting social media platforms to take a more direct role. With Symphony Digital Avatars, brands can leverage realistic digital avatars to star in their content and benefit from cost and time savings, as well as more personalized content via multilingual tools.
As one might expect, this development raises concerns for creators, who now not only have to compete against other creators for brand partnerships but also with digital avatars that brands can deploy at any time. Fortunately, creators also have the opportunity to replicate themselves digitally, which offers similar benefits, and even the opportunity to license out their own likeness.
While some brands may fully embrace digital avatars to address challenges in working with human creators, a more balanced approach involves continuing collaborations with human creators to leverage the strengths of both virtual and human influencers. Amid all the talk about AI, there may come a point where audiences become overwhelmed and actively seek out content featuring real humans and created by humans.
