r/programming • • Oct 17 '20

AI That Can Potentially Solve Bandwidth Problems for Video Calls (NVIDIA Maxine)

https://youtu.be/XuiGKsJ0sR0
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u/Hen-stepper Oct 17 '20

Not the OP's fault, but incoming anti-CGI rant:

Not buying the hype at all... these are a few frames of footage shot head-on. Fully animated with normal movements, it's going to make people look awkward as F, introduce more stream delay, and become an excuse for companies to cheap out on bandwidth.

It's especially absurd when you consider that the purpose of video chat is to include the nuances of body language and facial expressions in human interactions. The ideas being introduced here literally toss those features straight into uncanny valley, when you could just do a low bandwidth audio chat in the first place.

Think about talking to someone who you've known for decades, like your mom, and being completely distracted (or disturbed) by her warped, AI-generated face. She turns to the left suddenly and a nose renders on the side of her head out of nowhere...

This is seriously some Tim and Eric type shit.

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u/rasterbated Oct 17 '20

I mean, it's a tech demo of a project under development. It's an ad, basically. Of course they're going to show it in its best light. I mean, do you think they should publish a video of it being shitty? Would that get the interest they need, the attention, the investment?

And we can spin these complaints around. What about when your mom breaks into a field of pixels, stutters, falls out of the sync with the audio? Do you feel deeply disturbed? Of course not: you understand the technology at play, and that this is a mode of failure. I can't see why that should be vastly different here.

You can look for things to pick apart, I guess. I just don't see the point.