AI Howie is Howie Mandel's Digital Twin
DeepBrain AI brings the latest celebrity virtual human to life
DeepBrain AI and the comedian, actor, and variety show host Howie Mandel today announced the debut of AI Howie. Howie Mandel worked with DeepBrain to create a digital twin he can leverage to drive fan engagement across digital channels, augment his social media presence, and employ as a stand-in for brand advertising. “I am equally thrilled, excited, and terrified to finally have the ability of showing up and doing things without going anywhere or doing anything,” said Howie Mandel.
Eric Jang, DeepBrain AI CEO, commented, “Working with Howie Mandel was a fun experience, and we are excited to see how the AI Howie collaboration will connect with his fans worldwide.”
From AI Yoon to AI Howie
DeepBrain is experienced in the digital twin market. The company previously created digital twins for several news anchors in Asian markets and Premier League soccer superstar Son Heung-Min. DeepBrain also created AI Yoon for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. AI Yoon was employed during Yoon’s successful presidential campaign earlier this year. Howie Mandel represents DeepBrain’s successful move in exporting this model to the U.S.
Below are two videos that show AI Howie in action.
“I am equally thrilled, excited, and terrified to finally have the ability of showing up and doing things without going anywhere or doing anything,” said Howie Mandel.
The Digital Twin Business Model
Digital twins represent an important segment of the virtual human market. While employing humanlike presenters for news media websites, as friendly greeters in kiosks, and adding a face to digital customer support channels are popular virtual human use cases, digital twins are emerging as a compelling application.
The reason is pretty straightforward. Celebrities cannot scale their efforts past the hours they have available in the day. There are many more opportunities presented to them than they can reasonably fulfill. That results in missed revenue for them. In addition, it also means they have little pricing flexibility. They cannot expand their addressable market with lower-priced offerings because they only have time for high-dollar activities.
Digital twins enable celebrities to offer additional products. Their customers can purchase the presence of the real human, or they can acquire the services of the digital twin at a lower price point. Moreover, the digital twin doesn’t have scheduling conflicts. It can be available whenever the customer needs them.
The digital twin’s performance is also editable. Let’s say you wanted to use Howie Mandel in a geotargeted ad for a restaurant chain with locations in 50 different markets. You could have Howie Mandel in a studio and have him repeat the recording 50 times to cover all of the geographic markets. That is tedious but is done today.
However, what if you add a market or want to change the promotion? You would need to get Howie back in the studio, which is costly and doesn’t enable a quick turnaround. You can make the original spots in minutes with DeepBrain’s AI Studios, and changes also can be made anytime. Because this doesn't take up Howie’s time, he also can charge a different price point which means the cost will be within reach of more advertisers. This offers a significant market expansion option.
Higher Productivity for Existing Activities
There is also the benefit of higher productivity for existing activities such as social media posts. These are important activities for many celebrities to maintain their profile with fans and attract new followers, which, in turn, makes them more in demand for entertainment and advertising jobs.
However, it can be hard to fit social posts into already packed schedules. Even when an agency takes much of this on, the most valuable asset a celebrity has is their likeness. Digital twins enable the agencies to use the real celebrity, the AI version, and other media formats in a more versatile mix of posts. Plus, they don’t have to wait. They can spin up a post featuring a digital twin at a moment’s notice.
This can improve the productivity of the celebrity as well as their staff and service providers. For example, Heise Online created a voice clone of their most popular podcast host and was immediately able to double the episode output and increase downloads by 37%. You can learn more about this use case at the upcoming Synthedia 2 conference scheduled for December 14th. Hannah Moderkamp will be demonstrating the solution and talking through the project details and outcomes.
The AI Howie digital twin includes a voice clone plus a full-body visual likeness of Howie Mandel. That means it can be used across both audio and video media.
Why AI Howie May Be Important
AI Howie is by no means the first digital twin on the market. DeepBrain has introduced several others, and we featured digital twins for YouTuber Dom Esposito (by Hour One) and athletes Carmelo Anthony and Jack Nicklaus (by Soul Machines) at the first Synthedia online event. With that said, Howie Mandel is a dynamic celebrity that is on television every week. He is also involved in many projects both inside and outside of entertainment. If Mandel gets behind this solution and really starts using his digital twin in a lot of projects, it will cause many other celebrities to take note.
Virtual human technology has advanced significantly in the past two years. DeepBrain, for example, has moved from torso shots to the full body to more hand gesture control and more visual and audible realism in a short time. However, the high profile use cases are just emerging. Howie Mandel is the type of celebrity that can bring more attention to the technology just like America’s Got Talent (the show co-hosted by Mandel) raised the profile of Metaphysic’s deepfake technology while also introducing a new use case.
