AI 01732 759725 29 magazine Hour One, an AI-driven content pioneer, is promoting the availability of cinema-quality avatars on its all-in-one video production platform with reference to a new video in which LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman (the company’s 2000th customer) conducts a hyper-realistic interview with his cinematic avatar. Hour One built Reid Hoffman’s hyper-realistic digital twin using unique cloud infrastructure that combines Gen-AI inference and 3D rendering, built on top of AWS, GCP and Azure clouds, utilising Nvidia and Intel GPUs. The avatar’s voice was created by Eleven Labs and its persona is generated by a chatbot built on GPT-4 and trained on material produced by Hoffman over the last few decades. Identical twins? Democratising video The ability to create cinema-quality avatars brings new possibilities to Hour One’s generative AI (Gen-AI) video platform, which empowers customers to produce videos using lifelike AI avatars and text-to-video technology that converts text into speech. Hour One claims its all-in-one platform democratises video production by cutting the time needed to produce videos by up to 90%, making it easier for businesses to scale video use across diverse applications, such as product demos, learning & development, internal communications and sales and marketing. Customers can use Hour One’s own avatars or create their own, and do the same for voices, enabling them to create avatars or digital twins of company employees. The ability to produce cinema-quality avatars takes this to a new level. Commenting on the Hoffman video, Hour One CEO Oren Aharon said: "We lead by example. We can honestly say that we use Gen-AI workflows in both our platform’s development and everyday operations which reflects our commitment to innovation and excellence. Reid Hoffman’s video highlights the advantages of Gen-AI for enterprises, and we take pride in showcasing this latest technology with our 2,000th customer." In addition to the ability to create cinematic avatars, Hour One has introduced a new day-to-day content creation workflow, empowering users to customise videos effortlessly. https://hourone.ai Hour One adds cinematic avatars to all-in-one video platform Spending on artificial intelligence (AI) by enterprises in EMEA is forecast to rise by 61% this year, with 40% of CIOs viewing the technology as a ‘game changer’, according to a new IDC study sponsored by Lenovo (CIO PlayBook 2024: It’s all About Smarter AI). IDC’s survey of 600 IT and business decision-makers shows that almost all European companies are incorporating generative AI (GenAI) into their strategies, processes and offerings. More than half (57%) have already invested in the technology and a further 40% plan to do so this year. Just 3% have no plans to adopt GenAI. A majority of companies in every industry sector have already invested in GenAI, from 50% of government organisations to 65% of enterprises in the telco sector and 67% in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI). Generative investment While high levels of interest in GenAI are powering the current boom in artificial intelligence, all forms of AI are benefiting, with GenAI, interpretative AI and machine learning each forecast to attract 25% of planned investment. In addition, there is widespread recognition of the importance of edge computing for AI, with organisations in every vertical having increased investment in that area, up 29% in manufacturing and 60% in the telco sector. Reflecting stringent regulations around data privacy, particularly in mainland Europe, most organisations are basing their implementation strategies on hybrid cloud (48%) or private cloud (24%), with just 17% opting for public cloud. Implementation challenges The biggest technological challenge associated with GenAI, cited by 40% of respondents, is the capability limitations of data models (i.e. the large amounts of computational power and data resources needed to train them), followed by fears around the potential misuse of AI and AI 'hallucinations' (37%), the difficulty of finding a reliable data platform (36%) and reliance on third parties for generative AI development (35%). From an organisational perspective, the most widely cited concerns are dealing with employee fears around job displacement (40%) and resistance from IT teams that are not used to implementing rapidly evolving AI tools and technologies (45%). Commenting on the findings, Neil Ward-Dutton, VP AI, Automation & Analytics Europe at IDC, said: “There is a growing consciousness across every sector that AI offers potential to boost efficiency and competitiveness. CIOs should take this opportunity to invest in core enabling technologies and ensure that AI expertise is not located within one single team but spread throughout the organisation.” https://lenovo.com Just 3% of European companies NOT planning to adopt GenAI eBook, sponsored by Neil Ward-Dutton Vice President Automation, AI & Analytics, IDC Europe CIO Playbook 2024 It’s all About Smarter AI REGION FOCUS: EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA FEBRUARY 2024 Neil Ward-Dutton Vice President Automation, AI & Analytics, IDC Europe CIO Playbook 2024 It’s all About Smarter AI REGION FOCUS: EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA FEBRUARY 2024
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