With its latest acquisition, Google is reworking its plans to take on short video sensations like TikTok. The search engine giant has bought an AI startup called Alter which specialises in generating avatars with the help of artificial intelligence. According to reports, Google has paid $100 million to buy Alter, as quoted by TechCrunch. It said the acquisition was made a few months ago, but Google finally confirmed it earlier this week.
Alter’s co-founder also confirmed the development by updating his position on LinkedIn. He added the comment, “building avatars at Google,” to his profile.
Avatars are supposed to be a big part of the future, well at least that’s what Mark Zuckerberg and Co. at Meta want the world to believe. Meta is trying to bring avatars into all its platforms, including WhatsApp, which could become a reality very soon.
AI-generated content is another facet of the industry that has come about and shown its potential. You have platforms that create AI-based images, music and even art, for that matter. The technology has evolved to such an extent that you just have to spell out certain words and the AI will process all the data to give you the best output.
This is where AI-based avatars also work nicely for Google as its facial recognition tech is not as advanced as Apple’s Face ID.
Avatars could also become integrated with YouTube Shorts, which is Google’s bet against TikTok in the short video space. How Google plans to do that, we still don’t know, but rest assured the reported $100 million spent on buying Alter can only be considered a forward-looking decision.
As for the startup now absorbed by Google, it remains to be seen if Google retains all the employees working there, or decides to streamline the team to make it work in its model.
