Virat bonds with fans via generative AI

Users can access the ‘Jio VIP Box’ or the Jio Cinema app to choose their favourite IPL team, select a message, personalize it, enter a name, download it and share the message with whoever they choose. However, in order to share or download, one will need a Jio mobile number.

The real-time messaging service has been made possible with the help of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Reliance Jio and Two Platforms Inc., in which it has a stake. Last February, Jio Platforms Ltd, the digital unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, invested $15 million in Two Platforms, a Silicon Valley-based deep tech startup founded by Pranav Mistry, for a 25% stake.

“I envision myself as that kid in India who is getting a personal message from his favourite cricket star. It makes me so happy that our AI tech can bring smiles to the faces of millions of cricket fans like me,” Mistry, founder and CEO of Two Platforms, said in an interview from his Bay Area office.

His company’s generative AI video messaging service called AutoCameo helps deliver these personalized celebrity video messages. The proprietary core engine that powers the service is named ‘HALO-2’, and it can produce millions of high-resolution, AI-generated videos in real-time using any given text input, according to Mistry.

Generative AI, which comprises AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, Bing Chat, Hugging Chat, DALL-E 2 and MidJourney, is making waves because the tools can not only generate or write blogs, articles, resumes, reviews, films, images, audios, videos, software code, and provide templates for marketing campaigns, but also aid in speeding up new drug discovery, in creating entirely new materials and generating synthetic data too. And its popularity is such that since its launch five months ago, ChatGPT has racked up more than 100 million users.

“HALO-2 is able to generate pixel-real visuals in 4k (the video technology comprises 3,840 horizontal pixels and 2,160 vertical pixels for a total of about 8.3 million pixels — the more the pixels, the better the final results will be) and 30 frames per second (fps) that animates gestures and movements in sync with natural sounding synthesized audio,” Mistry explained.

He added the technology can be used to create a variety of looks with different clothing, makeup, and effects, “which extends to different facial expressions and emotions, as well as different camera angles”.

Users are lapping up the technology, according to Mistry.

During the peak days of IPL games, fans generated over 2,000 AutoCameos per hour, he pointed out. The AutoCameos shared on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram received millions of views, shares, and comments, with one post garnering more than 750,000 views, Mistry added.

Two Platforms has its own data centre in the Bay Area to handle the huge volumes of messages. “There are about 1,000 requests every hour when the IPL matches are on,” says Mistry. But he assures that neither his startup nor Reliance Jio stores any individual data. “Most of the data is user-generated, so we have no control over it,” he explains. Further, Mistry assures that users are encouraged to “refrain from using profanity”.