Virtual Beings & Being Virtual
AI-Generated Characters for Positive Applications
April 14, 2022 | 9 am – 4:30 pm
Organized by MIT Media Lab with NTT DATA
The workshop is dedicated to the discussion of how AI-generated Characters can be used for positive applications. We will explore a variety of topics, including how AI-generated characters can be used to improve the quality of life for a broad group of people in areas such as education, healthcare and beyond, and how industry can make use of virtual characters in customer relations, e-commerce, training, living memory, and more. The all-day workshop will feature a range of speakers, all of whom are experts in technologies, applications, and ethics of virtual characters. The audience will consist of researchers as well as representatives from industry, some in person and some online. It will also be live-streamed for the general public.
*The event workshop will be livestream on the MIT Media Lab channel
*On-site participation is by invitation only
Speakers
Workshop Schedule
| 8:30 AM | Registration & Breakfast |
| 9:00 AM | Welcome & Introduction – Professor Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab & Naoki Ohsugi, NTT DATA |
| 9:20 AM | Technologies for AI-generated characters |
| Thomas Normark – Global Head of AI & Robotics at NTT DATA Business Solutions | |
| Yaser Sheikh, Director of Reality Labs at Meta & Associate Professor, Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University & Elaine Fath, Carnegie Mellon University | |
| Sara Giusto, Producer at Aww inc. | |
| 10:20 AM | Coffee break | Demos and Inspiration Stations |
| 10:50 AM | Creative use cases of AI-generated characters |
| Pat Pataranutaporn, Joanne Leong, Valdemar Danry – MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group | |
| Or Gorodissky, Vice President of R&D at D-ID | |
| Jeanne Lim, Co-founder and CEO at Being AI | |
| 11:50 AM | Lunch |
| 12:50 AM | The ethics and social impact of AI-generated characters |
| Professor Joshua Glick, Hendrix College | |
| Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Replika AI | |
| Professor Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University | |
| 1:50 PM | Wrap-up by Professor Pattie Maes & Thomas Normark – Global Head of AI & Robotics at NTT DATA Business Solutions |
| 2:00 PM | Breakout session (in-person) |
| 3:00 PM | Coffee break | Demos and Inspiration Stations |
| 3:30 PM | Share back |
| 4:00 PM | “Imagining an Anoitopia” – Special Guest Speaker: Greg Daniels, an Emmy award-winning writer, showrunner, producer and director behind some of the most iconic series and characters in TV including Amazon Original sci-fi comedy Upload, Netflix’s Space Force, The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, King of the Hill, Seinfeld and The Simpsons |
| 4:20 PM | Wrap-up and Closing Remarks |
| 4:30 PM | Event Ends |
Organizers
- Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab
- Pat Pataranutaporn, MIT Media Lab
- Valdemar Danry, MIT Media Lab
- Mirei Rioux, MIT Media Lab
- Erej Sarfraz, NTT DATA
- Naoki Ohsuki, NTT DATA
- Thomas Normark, NTT DATA
- Charlotte Lindegaard, NTT DATA
- Diego Antonelli, NTT DATA
- Tina Dupont, NTT DATA
- Thorsten Sobirk, NTT DATA