Competition for Talking Avatars is a good thing [Future of Artificial Intelligence]

[caption id="attachment_522" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Traveling Windfairy (my alter ego)  in Meez"][/caption]

Talking avatars  instead of flat still pictures in IM, representing our real persona while conversing with others, will soon be rather the norm; enhance the animated figurines with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and you can survive the economic downturn by hiring 24/7 employees that never sleep and never complain: Talking Avatars with pre-scripted knowledge or even self-learning skills are in the works all over the worlds (post about it coming soon) and they can help out as greeters, talking FAQs, sales representitives, entertainment characters or automated teachers and tour guides. Their workspace will be where ever real people go wearing an avatar - virtual worlds, 2.5 and 3D chat rooms and the 3D Web.

Freddie McMahon lists some of the movers and shakers for talking avatars in his blog.

via The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Competition for Talking Avatars Benefits from More Venture Capital Funding >>