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Can AI art inspire? Synthesia’s CEO says maybe

Victor Riparbelli Synthesia
Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli. Image credit: Synthesia

Anyone regularly using social media services in the past year will have noticed the skyrocketing volume of AI-generated art.

Sites like Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, have become inundated with AI-made pictures of houses, idyllic scenery and, bizarrely, depictions of Jesus Christ as an underwater crustacean.

For many users, there is a negative gut reaction to seeing robotically manufactured digital art replace what previously would have been made by artists and photographers.

But Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of generative AI startup Synthesia, is not so sure this is as problematic as some think it is.

Speaking on the UKTN Podcast, the AI unicorn chief executive said users might find they can be just as inspired by AI images as those made by humans.

“If you’re sharing beautiful pictures of architecture, I can be inspired in what couch to use in my own home by watching AI-generated images if they look real,” Riparbelli said.

“I don’t really care that much that it’s not necessarily a house that exists in the real world.”

Synthesia is a London-based AI company that generates video presentations given by artificially generated speakers for corporate communications and training content.

Synthesia was valued at $1bn after closing a £71.4m Series C round in June 2023.

Riparbelli acknowledged that certain categories of content should be kept for humans, such as news. However, he questioned why people may react poorly to any images circulating social media being AI-generated.

“It’s easy to say that we don’t like content that’s synthetically generated…but I think it’s more complex than that.”

He added: “When you go to movies, how much of that is real? Most of that is recorded in a warehouse somewhere in Hollywood.”

The AI executive said there is a fine line for artificial content that people find acceptable, and this will have to be looked at as AI content becomes more widespread.

Riparbelli once told UKTN that in the future, he expects as much as 95% of content online to be made by AI.

Read more: AI unicorn Synthesia is adding emotions to your digital double

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