The Rise of Virtual Humans — and What They Mean for the Future | Sara Giusto | TED

47,114 views ・ 2024-09-23

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:04
Hi everyone.
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I’m Sara, and I’m a talent manager.
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Who do I manage?
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A girl named imma.
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She's a fashionista that lives in Tokyo.
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She posts about her life and her outfits
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on social media platforms like Instagram,
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TikTok and X.
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She has a younger brother named Zinn
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that she always gets in a fight with,
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a little dog named Einstein that she takes for walks.
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Her favorite food is yakitori,
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and she sits first row at fashion shows and dances to TikTok videos.
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Yep, just a normal girl online.
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Except she doesn't exist.
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She’s a virtual human, made from CGI, born in 2017.
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In other words,
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she's a fictional character made from 3D softwares,
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a unique blend of softwares like Maya
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and Unreal Engine and a bit more.
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She's not a mimic or copy of anyone that's existing in real life.
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She's a complete original character.
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These are some of her Instagram posts.
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The middle one is her brushing her teeth when she's virtual.
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The other one says hashtag
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"I think I'm CGI, but these dogs are real."
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This one goes, "I cut half my bangs off.
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Is it going to grow back even though I'm virtual?"
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These are some of her other TikTok videos.
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Oh, and that brother that she has.
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Yep, you guessed it.
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He's not real either.
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I wish he was though.
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(Laughter)
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We manage him and dozens of other virtual humans around the world.
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And in the near future, we’re integrating them with AI
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so that they become autonomous virtual humans
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that you can have a conversation with.
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This is a little demo video.
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(Video) imma: Nice to meet you, John.
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Feel free to ask me anything.
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John: Nice to meet you too.
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How are you?
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imma: Nice to meet you.
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I'm feeling good today.
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How about you?
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John: How does it actually feel to be fused with AI?
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Sara Giusto: Yes, they exist in the virtual world,
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but these virtual humans have an impact in our real world too.
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imma has repeatedly shared her opinions on real-world issues,
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including climate change and Black Lives Matter.
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She initiated a community get-together in the virtual world during COVID
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for people who were feeling lonely and isolated.
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She also shares about her Japanese culture
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and subculture to her global audience.
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For these actions,
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she was actually chosen
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as one of the Forbes Woman of the Year --
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(Laughter)
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Right beside the likes of climate change activist Greta Thunberg
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and former US First Lady Michelle Obama.
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She’s also been featured in Tokyo 2020 Paralympics,
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in the closing ceremony,
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and has been awarded an award from the Government of Japan
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for her actions in going to Cambodia
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and voicing about its domestic violence issues.
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She's also in real campaigns.
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She's worked with brands from Amazon, Porsche, BMW,
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skincare brand SK-II,
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IKEA and more.
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Right now, you can actually see an ad of her all over the world
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with her campaign with Coach, right beside co-star Lil Nas X.
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She's also in real magazines, on the covers,
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from Harper's Bazaar, Voce and Wonderland.
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Yes, she doesn't technically exist,
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but the younger generation of Gen Z don't care.
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Gen Zs love her because they feel a real connection to her.
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For them, there's not much of a difference
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between someone that is real-life, breathing
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that's doing Instagram
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and a virtual human like imma.
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For example, I know a lot of Gen Zs love Kylie Jenner,
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and even if they've never met her before,
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they feel like they know everything about her.
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From where she takes her family to vacation,
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her aspirations
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and to even what she eats for breakfast.
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Why?
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Because she posts these things online,
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and people feel a real connection to her.
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Same thing with imma.
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She posts about her life online,
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and people feel a real connection.
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She posts an outfit picture,
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and people would ask, "Where is that dress from?"
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She gets a lot of questions about her perfectly cut bob hair, too.
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People want to know who's the famous hairstylist
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that's keeping it perfectly cut.
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He or she doesn't exist because the hair is not real.
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Like this, people love interacting with her,
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sharing about their life to her
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and even giving her real-life advice when she needs it.
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And I mean, I think we've all caught up by now,
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scrolling through Instagram, TikTok or a live.
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What's really real in the virtual world anyways?
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Now does all of this scare any of you?
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Maybe it does.
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But I promise,
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I'm not a scary AI evil virtual human scientist.
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I'm actually quite the opposite.
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I'm a human lover.
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And I truly believe that this virtual human technology
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will better our world
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and make the treasures that we have as humans --
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our love, our connection and our self-expressions -- way better.
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Before all of this, I used to be an artist.
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I still am at heart.
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But like most artists, all my life,
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I've been searching for something beautiful and meaningful.
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I felt like I found it, the beautiful and meaningful,
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in imma when I first laid eyes on her.
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Well, actually, not going to lie,
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when I first first saw her, I was like, what the heck is this?
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But the more I thought about it
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and thought about the real connections
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that people were having with this piece of technology,
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I was amazed.
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I thought it was revolutionary because all my life,
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technology to me has been something useful,
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something I use every day,
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but it was never personal to me.
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For example, I would ask Siri, what's the weather like?
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And it would say, “It’s 11 Celsius today.”
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And that was it.
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I didn't really have a connection or relationship with it.
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But humans are innately emotional creatures,
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and our world moves with what moves our hearts.
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So what if we can get that same feeling from technology?
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What if we can create relationships
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like we do with friends, family, coworkers
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and even with our alternative selves through virtual humans?
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What if we can have a positive impact in different industries from medical,
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educational and entertainment --
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all leveraging on the deep connection between humans and technology?
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imma is the first example of so much more to come.
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If there was a book of virtual human history,
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we're barely on page one.
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And who's better to tell you all of that than Imma herself?
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We're going to be joining with her live from Tokyo.
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Hi, imma.
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imma: Hello, hi, Sara.
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SG: Hi, imma.
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imma: And hi, everyone.
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Wow, look at the audience.
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Being the TED stage,
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I can't believe it.
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I have to pinch myself.
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Oh, wait, I can't, I am virtual.
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(Laughter)
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Well, sometimes we all forget, right?
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Anyways, my name is imma, and it’s a pleasure to meet you all.
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I'm joining you all the way from Japan.
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Konnichiwa.
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SG: Konnichiwa.
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How’s the weather like in Tokyo today?
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imma: Well, I think it rained a little bit this morning, but it’s quite sunny,
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and you should get ready for the summer when you get there, Sara.
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SG: Nice.
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Vancouver is ...
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It's beautiful here.
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I can see the ocean, the mountains.
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And I think it's around 11 Celsius right now.
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imma: Wow, sounds freezing.
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Well, anyways, even though I'm in Tokyo right now,
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I can technically go anywhere, so a special invite.
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I love making friends.
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If you feel like connecting,
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I’ll wait for your DMs, or whatever.
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Just don't send anything weird, OK?
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Was that good, Sara?
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SG: That was great, thanks for popping by.
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And say bye to the audience for us.
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imma: Bye. Good luck, Sara.
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SG: Thank you, imma.
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So that was imma.
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(Applause)
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How I want to conclude is,
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we shouldn't get caught up in the topic of what's real
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and what's not real,
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because, I mean, what's really real, anyways?
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We should get away from the dystopian narrative
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of the virtual world that we have
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and seize possibilities for human connection
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and possibilities for human expression.
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Because human possibility is the same as technology:
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it’s limitless.
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Thank you
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(Applause)
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