Nikhil Jain, co-founder of ObEN, and his ‘personalized AI.’ Image credit: ObEN
“What if there was a copy of me that could interact with my kids and talk to them?”
Nikhil Jain asked himself this question, after yet another situation where he was torn between working on his business and being with his family. “Whenever I travel, my kids would miss me a lot because they’re so used to having me around,” explains Jain, who travels to Asia once a month as CEO of ObEN, a California-based startup that creates humanoid avatars.
Coming up with a solution became the impetus for ObEN, which he co-founded in 2014 with Adam Zheng. The startup specializes in what it calls ‘personalized artificial intelligence’ or PAI. It’s a digital replica of yourself that can be trained to complete tasks that you don’t have time for – or are incapable of doing.
“You can train it to be useful,” says the Bombay-born CEO. “I don’t speak Chinese, but my personal AI can.”
Future-obsessed creatives and technologists alike have long been fascinated by the idea of robots that are so human-like, it’s impossible to distinguish them from homo sapiens. What companies like ObEN are creating is one step removed from that – there’s no physical body. Instead, a 3D avatar is imbued with a human form and voice, plus enough intelligence to perform – for now, at least – simple tasks: customer service queries, reading out loud, and celebrity-fan interactions.
AI has infinite time and can work with infinite fans.
ObEN is working with South Korean powerhouse SM Entertainment to create PAIs for its pantheon of K-pop superstars. In June, the two companies announced a Hong Kong-based joint venture called AI Stars Limited.
“Celebrities wish they could interact more with their fans,” explains Jain. “AI has infinite time and can work with infinite fans.”
Korea’s pop scene raked in US$4.7 billion in global sales last year, according to a Bloomberg report that cited statistics from the Korea Creative Content Agency. Popular K-pop groups are major moneymakers, such as boy band EXO, which sold more than 1 million copies of their album this year alone.
By working with celebrity agents and managers, ObEN can get access to data that’s not publicly available and create one-on-one Q&A sessions with celebrities. “A lot of fans want to know the local routine of the celebrity: what they eat for lunch, [who] their latest crush [is], what kind of movies they like,” he says.
ObEN plans to launch its first celebrity avatars by the middle of next year. Apart from collaborating with Korean pop stars, the startup is also working with celebrities in Bollywood – another lucrative entertainment market ObEN can tap for clients. By 2020, India’s film industry is expected to reach US$3.7 billion in revenue, according to consulting firm Deloitte.
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