“A one-on-one conversation with anyone you can imagine: The power of RealChar
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| Welcome to this week’s Deep-fried Dive with Fry Guy! In these long-form articles, Fry Guy conducts an in-depth analysis of a cutting-edge AI development. Today, our dive is about RealChar.ai. We hope you enjoy! |
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| Have you ever wanted to chat with a celebrity or a knowledgeable public figure? How about a lost loved one or with an alternate version of yourself? RealChar.ai is here to make that dream a reality. |
WHAT IS REALCHAR?
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| RealChar is a brand new character-based platform that allows ordinary people to chat through both text and voice with imaginative, yet realistic characters and public figures in real time. Some of these characters include Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Bruce Wayne, Loki, Steve Jobs, and more. |
| These characters are not some abstract version of the actual public figures, but rather these characters employ the persona, knowledge, and voice of the actual person. So when one is chatting with Elon Musk, for example, it is almost as if someone is actually talking to the real person. |
| The characters that are available on RealChar are not limited to the creators of the tool. Rather, through their local version of the tool, every individual is able to create their own, unique character, whether that be a public figure, a loved one, or themselves. |
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HOW DID THIS PROJECT BEGIN?
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| RealChar is only two weeks old, and it was born from motivated individuals who wanted to bring the power of AI to the public. |
| One of the co-creators, Shaun Wei, has been working in the tech industry for over 10 years. He has a background in self-driving cars and has experience on the Google Assistant team. He has always had a focus to bring innovative technology to the public and to make it easily accessible to people who have tech backgrounds as well as those who don’t. He said, “No matter how old you are or what level of education you have, you should be able to access the latest technology.” Shaun saw the potential of AI character companions, and he wanted to make this goal a reality through RealChar. |
| Before this project was launched, Shaun faced challenges and doubters who told him of all the reasons he should not partake in this endeavor. However, Shaun truly believes this technology is the future. He said, “I believe the technology is here, and I believe everyone should be able to access the technology. I have seen first hand how technology makes life easier, so this is what kept me running.” |
HOW DOES REALCHAR WORK?
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| Utilizing the RealChar.ai platform is easy for people of all backgrounds and can be run through the cloud or locally. Anyone has the ability to go to the website and have a chat, or even a call, with one of the developed characters. Additionally, RealChar allows for a “select from community” character where one has the ability to chat with characters that were developed by the public using the RealChar platform or create their own. |
| Currently, creating characters takes about five minutes for someone with a brief, simple coding background, but soon RealChar plans to make the creation of new characters seamless for those with no technical coding background at all. |
| Creating characters of existing people who have backgrounds before 2021 is relatively simple and easy. RealChar uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT database as well as Anthropic to access information about the character, and then the user can add any additional information they want, if they feel it is necessary. To create a fictional character or a character who is less known publicly, such as a loved one, the user will need to input more data and relevant information, though this is also quite simple and requires only text inputs. These characters can also be continually built on and added to as time goes on. |
| RealChar, unlike many large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT which is only updated through 2021, utilizes live data sourcing to feed the character live, up-to-date information which the user can engage the character about. Shaun explains, “With RealChar, we want to user to be able to have a real, live conversation, just like how humans communicate with other humans.” |
| The way RealChar provides live information is by allowing the characters (with user permission) to access the internet (through Google search), so the character can be informed of real-time events and developments to best answer the questions being asked by the user and engage in conversation. This allows for users to ask people like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman or Elon Musk for their opinions on projects, ideas, or whatever else the user wants. These opinions will not be the opinions of the real person, obviously, but they will come as close as possible given the analyzation of publicly available data of the individual. |
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WHAT SEPARATES REALCHAR FROM OTHER CHARACTER/COMPANION TOOLS?
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| Character tools, in general, allow for conversation-based access to information, which makes it easier for the user to learn about a subject or have their questions answered than traditional methods of research. Projects like RealChar are making this a possibility. As Shaun said, “In the future, I think it will be very easy for people to talk to these AI characters and get information easily. You don’t even need to know how the technology works … you can use a very simple interface to get the information you need.” RealChar attempts to make this possible through an open-sourced structure, which does not require that users create their own models, making the tool simple to use for users without a technical background. |
| RealChar differentiates itself from other AI companion and character tools in that it gives real-time feedback, as discussed previously, and it also offers natural-sounding audio inputs and outputs. Shaun said, “I think AI should learn how humans communicate … how humans acknowledge each other, and how humans keep a conversation going.” This includes recognizing verbal cues and non-verbal cues like hand gestures, facial expressions, pauses, and even interruptions. RealChar’s goal is to make these conversations natural, as if talking to another human who understands these social cues and picks up on them. This is a current emphasis of the developers. |
| The RealChar developers are also working on what’s called “global memory,” where the user can store information they have asked or information about themselves on the platform, so that when they speak to the characters at later times or speak to different characters, these characters are aware of the background of the previous conversations. Shaun explains this vision: “When you talk to a character later or switch different characters, they still understand who you are and where the question is coming from, so you don’t need to give them the same context over and over again.” |
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF REALCHAR?
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| As RealChar conversations become more natural and character development becomes easier for people with non-technical backgrounds, the platform will be a powerhouse for AI companionship and conversational learning. In this way, the possibilities of RealChar are truly up to the human imagination! |
| The applications of RealChar could be interesting to monitor as the project continues to grow. We might imagine these characters being used in many creative ways: |
- Mentors
- Personalized tutors
- Virtual boyfriends/girlfriends
- Communication practice
- Customizable learning
- Therapists
- Talking to historical figures
- Customer support
- Virtual brand ambassadors
- Language translators
- Speech or interview audience simulation
- Feedback monitoring
- Product or idea reviews
- … and much more!
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| After only two weeks, RealChar has 10 contributors on GitHub, 600 Discord members, and is continuing to grow at rapid rates. The project is very easy to use and is only getting easier. Additionally, the passion of the people behind the project will continue to drive this project forward to new heights, far beyond what one could imagine for AI characters and companions.” |
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