Using DeepFake AI to Create Ethically Unreal Videos — Kristof Szabo, CEO of Colossyan

"Tech Fluent CEO" for non-technical entrepreneurs: https://aman-agarwal.com/tfc/

A few years ago, DeepFake technology appeared on the horizon.

It allows you to take  a person's video and voice recordings, and create a digital "avatar" that you can use forever. We saw synthetic videos of political leaders and celebrities saying things they had never said in real life, but which looked so real they were indistinguishable from the real thing.

While many were concerned, others saw a more ethical potential –making unlimited videos with "AI models," by simply giving them a script to recite.

One such company is Colossyan, and in this episode I sit down with their CEO Kristof Szabo to discuss how they're dealing with the technical and non-technical challenges of building such a unique, AI-first product.

This is an example of a product that would be unimaginable a few years ago, but which will be virtually everywhere in the future. AI celebrities (which do not exist) are already taking over social media and have scores of ardent fans.

Personally, I can imagine a world where 90% of actors in movies are not real human beings, and where almost every movie you see is "animated." Not sure if that's what will happen, but it's a definite possibility.

Here's what we discussed:

2:01 – Who are early adopters for a technology like this?

7:16 – Challenges in building the technology; what makes it so hard

13:08 – Why the "secret sauce" matters less than the product roadmap

18:00 – How to recreate body language for an AI avatar? (Also, Aman makes a non-European joke)

22:30 – Colossyan's origin story

27:00 – Lessons from talking to customers

31:36 – Fundraising cycle and product-led growth

37:00 – How to keep research and product teams in harmony

42:23 – Crazy idea: doing away with the "ML team" in an AI company?

46:48 – (Allegedly true) story about Kayak

(Ethics Policy: These opinions are 100% my own as an independent observer and educator. I don't own stock in guests' companies or their competitors, nor do I get paid by them in any form for any reason at the time of publishing, unless specifically stated. Episodes are also not intended to be an automatic endorsement of any company or its products and services.)