Synthesia (company)

Last updated
Synthesia
Company typePrivate
IndustryArtificial intelligence
Founded2017
FounderLourdes Agapito, Matthias Niessner, Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild
Headquarters
London
,
England
Area served
Global
Products Synthetic media, Artificial Intelligence, Video editing software
Number of employees
c. 200 [1]  (2023)
Website www.synthesia.io

Synthesia is a synthetic media generation company that develops software used to create AI generated video content. It is based in London, England.

Contents

Overview

Synthesia is most often used by corporations for communication, orientation, and training videos. [2] It has been used in advertising campaigns, reporting, product demonstrations, and to create chatbots. [3] [4] The company counts among its users businesses including Amazon, Tiffany & Co. and IHG Hotels & Resorts. [5] [6]

Synthesia's software algorithm mimics speech and facial movements based on video recordings of an individual’s speech and phoneme pronunciation. From this a text-to-speech video is created to look and sound like the individual. [7] [8]

Users create content via the platform's pre-generated AI presenters [3] or by creating digital representations of themselves, called artificial reality identities (ARI), using the platform's AI generation tool. [9] These avatars can be used to narrate videos generated from text. As of August 2021, Synthesia's voice database included multiple gender options in over sixty languages. [9] [10]

The platform constrains its software to be used to recreate celebrities or political figures for satirical purposes. [11] Explicit consent must be provided in addition to a strict pre-screening regimen for use of an individual’s likeness to avoid “deepfaking”. [12]

History

Synthesia's software utilizes deep learning architecture developed by Lourdes Agapito and Matthias Niessner. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Agapito, Niessner, Victor Riparbelli, and Steffen Tjerrild. [13] In 2018, the company first demonstrated the software’s capabilities on the BBC programme Click when it presented a digitization of Matthew Amroliwala speaking Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi. [14]

Synthesia raised $3.1 million in seed funding in 2019. [4] In April 2021, the company raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. [9] In December 2021, it raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and GV. [15] As part of a Series C funding round in June 2023, Synthesia raised an additional $90 million from the likes of US fund Accel and Nvidia, granting the company a total valuation of $1 billion (thus making it a unicorn). [16] [17]

In 2021, Synthesia partnered with Lay's to create the Messi Messages campaign featuring Argentine footballer Lionel Messi. Users created personalized messages with Synthesia's software and sent custom artificial reality video messages from Messi based on their text input. [18] The campaign received a Cannes Lion Award. [19]

In a Freedom House report on October 2023, it was discovered that Synthesia tools were used by the governments of Venezuela and China to create videos of fake TV news outlets using AI-generated avatars to spread propaganda. [20]

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References

  1. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle. "Synthesia secures $90M for AI that generates custom avatars". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  2. ↑ Crook, Jordan (2021-12-08). "Synthesia raises $50M to leverage synthetic avatars for corporate training and more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  3. 1 2 Khalid, Amrita. "The Next Great Tool for Winning Customers and Training Employees: Deepfakes". Inc.
  4. 1 2 Roettgers, Janko (2019-08-22). "How AI Tech Is Changing Dubbing, Making Stars Like David Beckham Multilingual". Variety. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  5. ↑ Singh, Jaspreet. "AI startup Synthesia gains unicorn status after Nvidia-backed fundraise". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  6. ↑ "AI Video Creation Pioneer Synthesia Raises $90 Million Series C Led by Accel". Business Wire. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  7. ↑ Simonite, Tom. "Deepfakes Are Now Making Business Pitches". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  8. ↑ "Dubbing is coming to a small screen near you". The Economist. 2019-12-21.
  9. 1 2 3 Crook, Jordan (2021-04-20). "Synthesia's AI video generation platform hooks $12.5 million Series A led by FirstMark". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  10. ↑ Dale, Robert (2022-04-08). "The voice synthesis business: 2022 update". Natural Language Engineering. 28 (3): 401–408. doi: 10.1017/S1351324922000146 . ISSN   1351-3249.
  11. ↑ Heilweil, Rebecca (2020-06-29). "How deepfakes could actually do some good". Vox. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  12. ↑ "Synthesia, which is developing AI to generate synthetic videos, secures $50M". VentureBeat. 2021-12-08. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  13. ↑ Butcher, Mike (2019-04-25). "The startup behind that deep-fake David Beckham video just raised $3M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  14. ↑ "BBC World News - Click, Top Quality Fake News, BBC newsreader 'speaks' languages he can't". BBC. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  15. ↑ Lee, Jane Lanhee (2021-12-08). "AI video avatar platform Synthesia raises $50 mln in venture capital". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  16. ↑ Burroughs, Callum (2023-06-13). "Generative AI startup Synthesia just raised $90 million in fresh funds from US fund Accel and Nvidia at a $1 billion valuation". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  17. ↑ Singh, Jaspreet (2023-06-13). "AI startup Synthesia gains unicorn status after Nvidia-backed fundraise". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  18. ↑ "You can now send personalised videos from an AI version of Messi. It's weird". ESPN.com. 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  19. ↑ "The Work | Lions Entry | Messi Messages". The Work. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  20. ↑ "Generative AI Is the Newest Tool in the Dictator's Handbook". Gizmodo. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
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