Can you imagine not having to attend work meetings, or being able to do other things while a double of yours nods to what your colleagues are saying? It sounds dystopian and surely it is, but it is getting closer.
This is the futuristic vision of Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, who plans to transform the video conferencing platform into an ecosystem powered by artificial intelligence. The announcement comes a few months after the recent update to Zoom’s terms of service, requesting access to your data to train its AI models, has raised a wave of criticism and concern about privacy.
Zoom reinvents itself: From video calls to digital clones
Zoom, known worldwide for its explosive growth during the pandemic, now faces the challenge of retaining its users. Eric Yuan, its founder and CEO, is not satisfied with just being a video conferencing platform.
During an interview on the Decoder podcast, Yuan outlined his strategy of incorporating artificial intelligence to create “digital twins”. These clones will not only attend meetings on behalf of users, but will also make decisions and replicate their thought patterns, allowing people to focus on more important tasks.
“We want you to be able to delegate meetings where you can contribute little but your clone gathers the information and interprets it according to your previous knowledge,” says Yuan.
The technology behind digital clones
The idea of creating a digital clone is not exclusive to Zoom. Companies like Delphi are already in the market offering similar services. Delphi uses data such as podcasts, videos and documents to create digital replicas that can speak and think like the original person.
This process can be completed in just one hour and allows users to train their clones with their own speech and thought patterns. Delphi’s clones are designed to replace users in routine tasks such as attending virtual meetings.
Controversy over privacy: Zoom’s new policy
Zoom’s recent update to its terms of service has sparked a strong debate. The company now requires users to agree to their data being used to train artificial intelligence models.
This policy does not offer an opt-out option, meaning that users must accept these terms to continue using the service.
According to Zoom, this measure is essential to improve its AI services and offer more advanced and personalized features. However, many privacy experts have criticized this decision, arguing that it exceeds acceptable limits of consent and user rights.
Zoom’s proposal raises many questions about the future of work and the ethics of artificial intelligence. Can we trust that these digital clones accurately represent our decisions and interests? What implications does delegating so many responsibilities to AI have? These issues not only affect individual users, but also team dynamics and corporate culture.
