An image tweeted by Pranav Mistry, head of the Neon project, from Samsung. - CAPTURE TWITTER

  • Samsung intends to take advantage of the CES in Los Angeles to unveil its Neon project.
  • The work of the Neon project teams focuses on the creation of photorealistic human avatars capable of developing a real personality independently.
  • Pranav Mistry, head of the project, is not afraid to announce the arrival of human machines.

It has been almost a week since the world entered a new decade and we are already beginning to see the first signs of it. While the largest trade fair dedicated to new technologies, the CES in Las Vegas, opens its doors on Tuesday, Samsung is arousing curiosity about artificial humans for its Neon project. Are we about to enter a real Westworld version where humans interact with machines with a real personality? If the Korean giant has not released much so far, 20 Minutes takes stock of this futuristic announcement.

Publicity stunt or tomorrow's reality? In any case, we can not say that Samsung does not master the art of teasing. "Have you ever met an artificial", tweeted Neon's Twitter account in late December, captioned several photos of human faces. Between an octopus video and psychedelic images, Pranav Mistry, research director of Samsung Research America at the head of the Neon project, announces: "Ready for the presentation of Core R3".

4 days to the Future. #NEON #ArtificialHuman # CES2020 pic.twitter.com/7FIZBcuvP3

- NEON (@neondotlife) January 4, 2020

This technology, which has nothing to do with Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby, intends to take a new course in artificial intelligence.

Virtual humans, soon a reality

Neon is a technology of realistic avatars which can "autonomously create new expressions, new movements, new dialogues (even in Hindi), completely different from the data initially used to create them", can we read in the same tweet. Basically, autonomous digital beings with their own personality.

Pranav Mistry gives a little more detail on these artificial humans in an interview with the Indian business daily, LiveMint, published on December 23. And according to him, these avatars should have a big role to play in the next decade.

We're ready - are you? # CES2020 #NEON https://t.co/mxleTyasNG

- NEON (@neondotlife) January 5, 2020

"The films are full of examples where artificial intelligence arrives in our world," he says. In Blade Runner 2049 , officer K forges a relationship with Joi, his hologram. While movies can disrupt our sense of reality, "virtual humans" or "digital humans" will be reality. They could even be part of our daily lives in the form of virtual presenters, receptionists and even movie stars. Likewise, the bionic man [augmented by technology] could become reality and the film The Bicentennial Man , by Chris Columbus, gave a good overview of his potential.

A world where "machines are human"

“The bionic arms and legs are already restoring the independence of amputees. Scientists are able to connect people's minds to machines, says Pranav Mistry in the LiveMint article. Animal studies have exposed the potential of bionic neural implants to send and receive neural signals, with future applications to help restore broken brain circuits or overcome paralysis. ” He exhorts to evolve "towards a world where humans are humans and machines are human".

Flying to CES tomorrow, and the code is finally working :) Ready to demo CORE R3. It can now autonomously create new expressions, new movements, new dialog (even in Hindi), completely different from the original captured data. pic.twitter.com/EPAJJrLyjd

- Pranav Mistry (@pranavmistry) January 5, 2020

But, between cinema and reality, everything remains to be done. In this month of January 2020, artificial intelligence has nothing to compare with the replicants of Blade Runner , virtual assistants are far from being able to hold a friendly or romantic discussion like Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) in Her and on has not seen the color of augmented humans announced by Neuralink, the American neurotechnology company co-founded by Elon Musk.

Find the section Future (s) here

Only a few hours to wait to find out if Neon will live up to expectations. So far, the company "offers us mostly hype," observes The Verge before ironicizing the heaviness of the "ALIVE" [alive] written in red on the image tweeted by Pranav Mistry. We just have to wait for the curtain to go up to find out whether or not the world is ready to welcome artificial humans. Suspense.

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  • Las Vegas
  • Future (s)
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Innovation
  • CES 2020
  • New technologies