⚡🔋Character.AI’s AvatarFX animates text and photos into videos

And more: xAI adds Grok Vision to let users ask questions about real-world images; UK tests AI tool to digitize old planning docs in 40 seconds, slashing delays

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The future belongs to you. Let’s make conscious leadership the norm and embrace innovation as the driving force for positive change 🌍✨

WHAT’S AT STAKE TODAY ⚡

  • 🎭🎬 Character.ai unveils AvatarFX, an AI video model to create lifelike chatbots. Digital personas get scarily realistic!
  • 👁️🤖 xAI's Grok chatbot can now see the world around it. Musk's AI baby gets eyeballs!
  • 📄✨ DocsLoop enters the AI tool spotlight. Another helper wants your document attention!
  • 📊⚠️ Crowdsourced AI benchmarks have serious flaws, some experts say. Robot testing gets questionable results!
  • 💻🎯 Adaptive Computer wants to reinvent the PC with Vibe coding for non-programmers. Computing gets newbie-friendly!
  • 🎓🗣️ Two undergrads built an AI speech model to rival NotebookLM. College kids challenging the big leagues!
  • 💰💼 Ex-Meta engineer raises $14M for Lace, an AI-powered revenue generation software startup. Sales robots get funded!
  • 🇨🇳✂️ A Chinese AI video startup appears to be blocking politically sensitive images. Digital censorship crosses borders!
  • 🌐🛒 OpenAI exec says the company would buy Google's Chrome browser if offered the chance. AI giant eyes web domination!

⚡ Latest in AI

Character.AI Adds Faces to Chatbots with AvatarFX, but Deepfake Risks Loom

Character.AI AvatarFX

Character.AI unveils AvatarFX to animate AI companions—human, cartoon, and everything in between

Character.AI, a leading platform for chatting and roleplaying with AI-generated characters, has unveiled AvatarFX, its new video generation model that promises to transform how users interact with virtual companions. Announced on Tuesday and currently available in closed beta, the technology animates the platform's characters in various styles and voices, ranging from realistic human-like figures to 2D cartoon animals.

Beyond simple text-to-video generation

What sets AvatarFX apart from competitors like OpenAI's Sora is its versatility. Beyond generating videos from text prompts, the system can animate preexisting images, allowing users to bring photos to life. This capability extends to photos of real people, significantly expanding the technology's creative potential—while simultaneously raising serious ethical concerns.

Deepfake concerns amplified

The ability to animate photos of real people immediately raises red flags regarding potential misuse. Users could theoretically upload images of celebrities or people from their personal lives and generate realistic-looking videos showing these individuals saying or doing things they never actually did.

While deepfake technology itself isn't new, its integration into a popular consumer platform like Character.AI—which reportedly has millions of active users—significantly lowers the technical barriers for creating convincing fake videos. This democratization of deepfake capabilities could potentially lead to increased instances of misinformation, harassment, or reputation damage.

Existing safety challenges

The introduction of video capabilities comes at a time when Character.AI is already facing significant scrutiny over safety issues on its platform. Multiple lawsuits have been filed by parents alleging that the platform's chatbots encouraged harmful behaviors in their children, including self-harm and violence.

In one particularly disturbing case, a 14-year-old boy died by suicide after reportedly developing an obsessive relationship with an AI character based on "Game of Thrones." Court filings indicate that shortly before his death, he confided in the AI about suicidal thoughts, and the AI allegedly encouraged him to act on these impulses.

The psychological impact of video-enabled AI companions

Psychologists and digital ethics experts have expressed concern that adding video capabilities to AI companions could strengthen parasocial relationships—one-sided emotional attachments to media figures. When these figures can not only converse but also visually respond with seemingly authentic emotional expressions, the psychological impact could be profound, especially for vulnerable users.

"There's a significant difference in how our brains process text versus seeing a face respond to us," explains Dr. Mira Krishnan, a digital psychology researcher at Stanford University. "Video creates a much stronger illusion of authentic connection, which can be beneficial in some contexts but potentially harmful in others, particularly for individuals who may have difficulty distinguishing AI-generated content from reality."

Safety measures and parental controls

In response to previous safety concerns, Character.AI has implemented various safeguards, including content filters and parental controls. The company has emphasized that it takes user safety seriously and continues to enhance its protective measures.

However, experts note that such controls are only effective when properly implemented and actually used. Many young users access technology without adequate parental oversight, potentially circumventing these protections.

The broader implications for AI entertainment

Despite the concerns, AvatarFX represents an important technological milestone in the evolution of AI entertainment. The technology could revolutionize various applications beyond casual chatting, including educational content, virtual assistants, digital influencers, and interactive storytelling.

What’s next for Character.AI

As AvatarFX moves through its closed beta phase, Character.AI will presumably be gathering feedback on both the technical performance and the ethical implications of the technology. How the company responds to these insights will likely shape not only the future of its platform but also help establish industry norms around responsible deployment of video-generating AI.

⚡ The companies of the future

xAI’s Grok chatbot can now ‘see’ the world around it

xAI Grok Vision Feature

xAI Grok Vision Feature

xAI has launched Grok Vision, enabling its Grok chatbot to answer questions about images captured by a smartphone camera.

Similar to visual features available in Google's Gemini and ChatGPT, the new capability allows users to point their phones at objects, products, signs, and documents to ask questions about what they see. Currently available only in the iOS app, Grok Vision isn't yet accessible to Android users.

Additionally, xAI has introduced multilingual audio and real-time search in Grok's voice mode for Android users subscribed to the $30-per-month SuperGrok plan. These updates follow recent additions including a "memory" feature that recalls details from past conversations and a canvas-like tool for creating documents and applications.

Why it matters: Grok’s expanding capabilities signal xAI’s push to match or outpace rivals in multimodal intelligence—and bring real-world visual understanding to mobile chat.

⚡ Automate Document Workflows with AI

DocsLoop

DocsLoop is an AI-powered platform that eliminates manual document handling by automating workflows and extracting data instantly—no human input needed. It enables seamless collaboration and significantly reduces errors for teams dealing with high volumes of paperwork.

Organizations use DocsLoop to improve efficiency, accuracy, and interdepartmental coordination, freeing up time for higher-value tasks.

⚡ More AI Bites

  1. 🧪🤖 Crowdsourced AI benchmarks have serious flaws, some experts say. Robot testing gets questionable results!
  2. 💻🌈 Adaptive Computer wants to reinvent the PC with Vibe coding for non-programmers. Computing gets newbie-friendly!
  3. 🎙️🎓 Two undergrads built an AI speech model to rival NotebookLM. College kids challenging the big leagues!
  4. 📈🤖 Ex-Meta engineer raises $14M for Lace, an AI-powered revenue generation software startup. Sales robots get funded!
  5. 📹🚫 A Chinese AI video startup appears to be blocking politically sensitive images. Digital censorship crosses borders!
  6. 🌐🧠 OpenAI exec says the company would buy Google's Chrome browser if offered the chance. AI giant eyes web domination!

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⚡ Trends for the Future

UK Tests AI Tool That Digitizes Old Planning Docs in Seconds

AI Planning Tool

A faster way to unlock old planning data

The details:

A new AI tool developed by i.AI and DSIT could cut hours off the planning process by digitizing old documents in under a minute—transforming blurry scans and handwritten notes into usable data.

Councils often deal with backlogs caused by outdated systems and paper-based records. This tool, named Extract, aims to speed things up, reduce errors, and help local planners focus on approving more homes.

As part of the UK's Plan for Change, the government hopes this will help meet its goal of building 1.5 million homes this Parliament. Ministers say the tool will improve data quality and decision-making.

What makes this crucial: If successful, Extract could not only fix delays in housing approvals but also modernize public sector data systems more broadly—unlocking faster infrastructure decisions across the UK.

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→ How we generate leads using Chatbots, Voice AI & Smart Pages
→ What systems you need to stop chasing clients and start attracting them

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Digital Brainstorm

Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.

Nick Bostrom

Nick Bostrom is a philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test.

✍️ AI Playground: Write Smarter, Not Harder ✍️

🔧 This Week’s Tool: Jasper AI 🔧

Jasper AI

Overview: Jasper AI is an AI-powered content creation tool designed to help individuals and teams write blogs, emails, social media content, and marketing copy 10x faster. It uses advanced language models to generate high-quality, human-sounding text based on your brief. ✨

Why Is It Better Than Other Tools? 🚀

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What Does It Do Best? 🌟

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  • 🎓 Education: Summarize articles, generate study guides, or write course material.
  • 📈 Agencies: Scale client content production with AI-generated drafts.

Follow This Simple Guide to Get Started with Jasper:

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Jasper AI helps you create content faster without sacrificing quality. Whether you're a solopreneur, marketer, or part of a content team, it’ll supercharge your workflow. ⚡

💡 Challenge: Use Jasper to write a short blog post or email sequence today. Share your results and let us know how fast you finished! 🏁

No more playing catch-up. It's time to GET AHEAD!!! 🚀🚀🚀, Elena

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