Animated avatar generated by AI Synthesia video platform.
synthesis
Synthesia, a digital media platform that allows users to create AI-generated videos, has raised $90 million from investors – including US chip giant Nvidia, the company told CNBC exclusively.
The London-based company raised the cash in a funding round led by Accel, an early investor in Facebook, Slack and Spotify. Nvidia emerged as a strategic investor, investing an undisclosed amount of cash. Other investors include Kleiner Perkins, GV, FirstMark Capital and MMC.
Founded in 2017 by researchers and entrepreneurs Victor Riparbelli, Matthias Niessner, Steffen Tjerrild and Lourdes Agapito, Synthesia develops software that enables people to create their very own digital avatars to deliver corporate presentations, training videos and even compliments to colleagues in over 120 different languages .
Its ultimate goal is to eliminate cameras, microphones, actors, lengthy edits and other costs from the skilled video production process. To do that, Synthesia has created animated avatars that look and sound like humans but are generated by artificial intelligence. Avatars are based on real actors speaking in front of a green screen.
“Productivity will be improved because the associated fee of video production is reduced to the associated fee of making PowerPoint,” Philippe Botteri of Accel, a number one investor in Synthesia Series C, told CNBC, adding that the adoption of video has been spread by consumer platforms akin to YouTube, Netflix and TikTok.
“Video is a significantly better strategy to convey knowledge. When we expect in regards to the company’s potential and valuation, we take into consideration what it will possibly return, [and] with Synthesia, we’re just scratching the surface.”
Synthesia is a type of generative AI, much like ChatGPT OpenAI. However the company says it has been working by itself proprietary generative AI for years, and while ChatGPT could have only recently entered the general public consciousness, generative AI itself isn’t a latest technology.
Synthesia sells to corporate clients including Tiffany’s, IHG and Moody’s Analytics. The company doesn’t disclose sales or revenue figures, even though it says it’s “consistently driving triple-digit growth”, with greater than 12 million movies produced on the platform up to now. The company reported that the variety of Synthesia users increased by 456% year-on-year.
Synthesia plans to extend investment in its technology, with a specific deal with advancing research on artificial intelligence and making Synthesia avatars able to performing more tasks.
“We work with 35% of the Fortune 100 corporations [with a focus on] product marketing, customer support, customer success – areas of the company where you might have numerous text that you wish to turn into video,” Riparbelli told CNBC.
“As we move into the subsequent phase of the brand new generation of Synthesia technology, the thought is to make avatars more expressive, capable of do more things, walk across the room, carry on conversations,” he added.
Riparbelli explained that Nvidia is not only a semiconductor manufacturer – it is also a powerhouse of R&D talent with a military of engineers, scientists, and researchers compiling articles on the topic.
“They are not only a chip maker,” he said. “They’ve amazing research teams which can be very much on the forefront of easy methods to properly train these large models? What works and what doesn’t?”
Interest of AI investors
Business informant previously reported that Synthesia is in talks with investors to lift between $50 million and $75 million in latest funding, valued at roughly $1 billion.
The report didn’t go into details about Nvidia’s involvement, nor did it mention the whole raised total of $90 million.
Synthesia is one among many corporations which can be attracting investor interest in AI and enterprise software that may reduce the prices related to certain business processes. Firms are attempting to chop expenses wherever possible to fight rising inflation and prepare for a possible recession.
Last week, French business planning software company Pigment raised $88 million from investors including Iconiq Growth, Felix Capital, Meritech IVP and FirstMark, in part to spice up investment in artificial intelligence.
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Generative AI has been a rare vivid spot in a European tech market that has struggled with declining funding and declining valuations. Investors have moved from high-growth tech corporations to value sectors with more resilient revenue generation, akin to finance, industrials, energy and consumer goods.
Recently, a report by enterprise capital firm Atomico showed that funding for European tech start-ups could fall one other 39% in 2023 to $51 billion from $83 billion in 2022.
Nevertheless, AI was one area that attracted more investment, Atomico said, with generative AI accounting for 35% of total investments in AI and machine learning corporations last 12 months – the best share ever and an enormous jump from 5% in 2022
Ethical concerns about deepfakes
There are concerns that using video AI tools as advanced as Synthesia may lead to deepfakes, videos that use a user’s likeness and manipulate them to make it appear they’re saying or doing something they will not be.
There have also been a growing variety of calls from technology leaders and scientists on the case a worldwide pause in the event of artificial intelligence beyond systems akin to OpenAI’s GPT-4, resulting from concerns that the technology is becoming so advanced that it could pose an existential threat to humanity.
Synthesia first gained mainstream attention in 2019 for deepfake video which featured a digitally animated version of famous soccer player David Beckham talking about his campaign to eradicate malaria in nine languages.
While this was done with Beckham’s approval and for cause, the broader use of deepfake technology has raised concerns about the potential for misinformation.
![An AI-generated image has gone viral showing a fake explosion in front of the Pentagon](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107245018-16848006101684800607-29571418469-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1684800936&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)
To treatment this, Synthesia says it had ethics in mind when developing its software. The company requires consent from individuals who appear as avatars in its software, and uses a mix of humans and machine learning to focus on material akin to profanity and hate speech.
Additionally it is committed to the principles of Responsible Practices for Synthetic Media, an industry-wide voluntary framework for ethical and responsible development, creation and sharing of synthetic media.
“There are a lot of different discourses happening straight away. One is for very long-term existential risk scenarios. I believe it’s value talking about them too. But I wish there was more deal with where we’re today?” Riparbelli said in an interview with CNBC.
“These technologies are already powerful. How will we cope with hallucinations? How will we cope with all the issues that arise?” he added. “There are definitely pitfalls. But I believe there’s numerous opportunity in that as well, leveling the playing field and enabling people to do quite a bit more with less.”