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In addition to doing research on basic technologies, Tencent has expressed its intention to promote the artificial intelligence of various application scenarios through business drivers.
Combined with Tencent's main business, it is not difficult to predict that the company will focus on the four major applications of gaming, social networking, content, and platform tools in the future.
In the social realm in particular, last year Zuckerberg said he would launch a VR version of Facebook and showed off the virtual character tool Oculus Avatars. In July this year, Facebook said that Facebook AR Studio would partner with Meitu to provide it with three AR camera effects. Now, Tencent is also taking action.
On the evening of July 18, artificial intelligence startup ObEN announced that it had received 5 million US dollars in strategic investment. The round of financing was led by Tencent, and CMC Chairperson Li Ruigang and Fengshang Capital joined the investment. According to data from crunchbase, an investment and financing information platform, ObEN has completed four rounds of financing, with a total amount of 13.70 million US dollars. Previous investors include S Rushan Capital, SoftBank Korea Venture Capital and HTC VIVE X.
Founded in 2014, ObEN can create artificial intelligence avatars of users by building personalized virtual voices, images, and personalities, and help users store, manage, and operate their avatars in the emerging digital world. That is to say, ObEN can use artificial intelligence tools to create virtual images based on users' photos and voices, allowing users to have different AR and VR social experiences.
In the past, ObEN mainly helped gamers create avatars. Now the company has turned its focus to helping celebrities create avatars. Through this avatar, the star can interact with fans in real time. One day, fans may also be able to ask the star for advice and get corresponding feedback. In addition, this avatar not only looks very similar to the star, but also speaks the same way. Overall, such an avatar is better than a chatbot.
According to the introduction, ObEN has also integrated voice, computational vision and natural language processing technologies for the first time, and developed the virtual voice, three-dimensional image and personalization technology required for full-stack virtual stars. Now ObEN is building a new business platform. Here, stars and fans can directly interact on mobile ends, augmented reality, virtual reality and smart devices, Internet of Things and other platforms through personalized artificial intelligence. ObEN's personalized artificial intelligence products are expected to be released later this year.
The latest round of financing will be used to accelerate ObEN's product development and help promote the wide application of its star artificial intelligence copyright platform to various digital platforms. For this cooperation, Yao Leiwen, executive director of Tencent Investment, said that ObEN will bring new entertainment methods and content driven by star artificial intelligence.
Earlier, ObEN has said that it wants to be "everyone's artificial intelligence social platform". In this regard, the company has made several layouts.
At the HTC Vive Biosphere conference in March this year, ObEN announced a collaboration with HTC Vive to develop a WeChat Mini Program that allows users to play VR together and VR "Karaoke". In this program, VR users can send invitations to friends; friends who receive invitations can upload selfies and audio, and finally use the built image to stroll along the beach with the invitee or visit attractions.
Then at the end of April, ObEN launched a WeChat chat service video integrated with VR social experience. Of course, users need to wear HTC Vive headsets. In the video, users need to take a selfie, upload it to WeChat to make a virtual image, and then bring HTC Vive, you can receive messages from WeChat friends, and you can reply directly with voice. In the future, WeChat with VR and AR functions may be able to harvest a large number of Asian users.
At the end of June, ObEN announced the establishment of a joint venture with South Korea's SM Entertainment, AI Stars Co., Ltd. It is reported that ObEN will use artificial intelligence technology to create AI virtual images for SM Entertainment's well-known artists, and Magic Star Co., Ltd. is the agency that manages these "AI stars".
This time, Tencent led the investment in ObEN, whether it can further promote the artificial intelligence of the company's social business. Nowadays, major companies are not only busy establishing artificial intelligence labs, but also companies like Facebook have established more similar Facebook AR labs. In addition, it is said that Apple will soon launch the ARKit platform. In the future, will Tencent set up a separate AR lab to further expand the social AI business?
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