Zoom Chief Executive Hopes To Create Digital AI Clones That Will Attend Meetings for You
A ‘digital twin’ is essentially an advanced AI-driven replica that could attend meetings and even make decisions on behalf of the real person.
Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan is working on developing “digital-twin technology” that would allow workers to use artificial intelligence versions of themselves to attend meetings and handle other time-consuming tasks during the workday.
Mr. Yuan told The Verge that this innovation would enable users to send a digital version of themselves to participate in meetings, freeing up their time for other activities.
A “digital twin” is essentially an advanced AI-driven replica that could attend meetings and even make decisions on behalf of the real person. The technology leverages AI to fully automate certain aspects of work, potentially transforming how we approach productivity and time management.
“Today we all spend a lot of time either making phone calls, joining meetings, sending emails, deleting some spam emails, and replying to some text messages, still very busy,” Mr. Yuan said. “You do not need to spend so much time [in meetings]. You do not have to have five or six Zoom calls every day. You can leverage the AI to do that.”
Mr. Yuan said letting AI sit in for the “boring” parts of work would allow for a better work-life balance and might even lead to a four-day work week.
“You and I can have more time to have more in-person interactions, but maybe not for work. Maybe for something else. Why do we need to work five days a week? Down the road, four days or three days,” he said.
“Why not spend more time with your family? Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right?” he added.
But there is much work to do before all that comes to fruition. “I think for now, the number one thing is AI is not there yet, and that still will take some time,” Mr. Yuan said. “Let’s assume, fast-forward five or six years, that AI is ready. AI probably can help for maybe 90% of the work, but in terms of real-time interaction, today, you and I are talking online.”