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At CES 2020, NEON, an artificial human with ability for human emotions and intelligence has been officially unveiled by Star Labs. The latter is an independent future factory from Samsung. Star Labs is led by President and CEO Pranav Mistry, who previously showcased the Galaxy Gear back in 2013, and is best known for his work on SixthSense, the gesture-based user interface system.
Star Labs is calling NEON as a “computationally created virtual being”, one the resembles and even behaves like a real human, with emotions included. No, Star Labs does not want NEON to be seen as another AI-based assistant like Google Assistant or Alexa, nor it is being called as an Android or a copy of real humans. Rather, the name NEON is derived from NEO (new) + humaN, and Star Labs has some ambitious plans for these.
This is also why CEO Pranav Mistry describes, “NEON as a new kind of life,” in the official press statement. “NEONs will be our friends, collaborators, and companions, continually learning, evolving, and forming memories from their interactions,” he adds.
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So NEON will exist not to answer queries, but to have a conversation and will also be able to “sympathise” with another human. They can even learn new skills and form memories from experiences similar to how it is with humans.
So exactly how will NEON work? This is powered by company’s proprietary technology platform called CORE R3. R3 stands for Reality, Realtime and Responsive. CORE R3 is inspired by the “complexities of nature and extensively trained with how humans look, behave and interact,” according to the company.
This CORE R3 system can “computationally create lifelike reality that is beyond normal perception to distinguish,” claims Star Labs. Further, the company is promising latency of less than a few milliseconds, to allow NEONs to react and respond in real-time.
According to Star Labs, each NEON will have his or her own unique personality and can show new expressions, movements, and dialogues as well. Further, one will be able to license or subscribe to a NEON as a service representative, a financial advisor, a healthcare provider, or a concierge in the future. In fact, Star Labs is also ambitious enough to pitch the idea of NEONs working as TV anchors, spokespeople, or movie actors in the future.
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“We have always dreamed of such virtual beings in science fictions and movies.” Mistry added, “NEONs will integrate with our world and serve as new links to a better future, a world where ‘humans are humans’ and ‘machines are humane’.”
While NEONs sound straight out of science fiction turning into reality, right now these do not come with any “physical” bodies as such. Right now, NEONs still exist as “digitally composed” AI entities.
There’s also SPECTRA, which is the company’s upcoming technology platform that will complement CORE R3 with Intelligence, Learning, Emotions and Memory. This is still in development phase and will be previewed at the NEONWORLD 2020 later this year. The company says it will do a beta launch for NEON in the real world with select partners later this year.
