It appears that many of the presentations I attend at conferences these days include a video. Not to appear to denigrate the practice (I use them too), this seems like a good way to put something nice and shiny in front of the audience that is easy to mentally digest.

Like the one above, perhaps a a little odd to be watching a video within a video, but great research and presentation on the use of avatars. Who knew that we could bring one of our favorite pitchmen, Orville Redenbacher back from the grave. This is like a scene out of Star Wars where the holographic image of Obi Wan Kenobi appears (the one played by Alec Guiness, not Ewan McGregor), appears to give us some sage advice (now wouldn’t that be nice).

The use of avatars and virtual worlds brings up all kinds of issues, concerns, and opportunities. Of course in the business world showing up to a meeting where your colleagues might be appearing in the form of a jaguar or wizard might be off putting, but for those accustomed to virtual worlds this is quite normal. What are more compelling issues are those of identity. How do we know that the avatar I am communicating with is indeed that person? What are the norms of behavior for those in the virtual world vs. the physical? and if a tree falls in the virtual forest and noone is there to hear it is that data recorded and reported? OK, this last one was more of a joke.

But wouldn’t it be great to create an avatar with virtual intelligence to deliver a presentation for you, answer simple questions pertaining to your work, or even better, attend a meeting for you (OK, this last one sounds far fetched, but I would expect to hear soon of the first virtual meeting where someone has sent an AI avatar instead of attending themselves).

More importantly, think about the possibilities for education and training. A virtual tutor with a sophisticated AI imparted with empathy and infinite patience could provide support for students struggling with specific subject matter. A virtual instructor could deliver a lecture and answer all FAQs on the subject. A virtual drill sargent could monitor a new recruits progress and provide guidance (by the way, this already exists- see America’s Army and other similar video games).

They could also be used for performance support. Imagine a surgeon operating on a patient who calls out the different procedures, an AI system could remind them (when perhaps the surgical team forgets or is afraid to mention) to remove all instruments from the cavity before sewing it up (which does happen).

If you think we are far from this future, we are not. As I heard stated recently, the future is here, it is just unevenly distributed.