Help – I’m a prisoner of AI!

“Don’t use your hands too much….Look straight down the lens and nod, and arch that eyebrow”

No – not an audition for James Bond but something far more sinister than Spectre could come up with.? I was committing my image, my speech patterns and my very gestures to AI; to a process that would rob me of all control of what I say, who I say it to, and even which language I speak.

It’s DRPG who have harnessed this technology for corporate communications – and offered me the chance to be a guinea pig. The idea is to turn me into a virtual guide for simplyEXPO next week, a ‘video Marc’ who can answer all your questions about the agenda, my favourite speakers and where to find the loos.? I thought it would be OK since the DRPG boss Dale Parmenter had gone through the same process for their own event, The Big Talk, just last month. When I met him over dinner he did not seem to harmed by the experience, so I thought I'd risk it for Simply, a Gallagher Company .

James Nam, the Head of Digital at DRPG is the man who wields this incredible power over my future self.

“Gen AI in particular has come such a long way in the last two years and it's really now at the point where it's able to be used and be integrated into people's businesses a lot more readily. There's a number of products that are ready to take to market that are actually opening up loads of opportunity for creatives, creators and communicators.”

So that’s how I ended up in one of DRPG’s large studios reading a teleprompt of two pages of script while director Fiona Hardeman gave me tips to record the perfect avatar. The process was very similar to a typical talking head piece to camera.? I had to hit my mark, look to camera and take directions without breaking eye contact, It actually took five takes and by the end I felt pretty exhausted – a bit like giving blood but without the tea and biscuit.

The actual technology comes from the world of deep fake video, but James was not going to give away any of the secrets of their AI alchemy. But he did give this piece of useful advice;

“As creatives and communicators, it has never been simpler to do a terrible piece of work. You know, you can replace a copywriter with ChatGPT, but that doesn't make it good. And I think it's the same with all these other opportunities around. There's a skill to knowing what to do with AI and getting real value out of it. It’s all about investing in time and skill as much as the technology.”

So maybe there is still a role for those old communication skills in this brave new world. Anyway you can judge for yourself if you come to simplyEXPO and ask me a question. I just hope I don’t answer with gibberish.

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