*By Samantha Errico* Step aside, Siri and Alexa. VR studio Fable is relaunching as a "virtual beings" company to bring the public its first A.I.-powered character with whom users can have a two-way relationship. According to co-founders Edward Saatchi and Pete Billington, the rebranding ー which the two announced at the 2019 Sundance Festival ー is partly an effort to educate consumers about machine learning. "We think a character is a cool way to show you all the advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning," Saatchi told Cheddar Wednesday. Fable's first virtual beings experience, "Whispers in the Night, stars the character Lucy from the company's past VR project, "Wolves in the Walls." The experience goes live this summer. "You are her imaginary friend, she literally draws you into her world," Billington, who also is the creative director of 'Wolves in the Walls,' Saatchi said."Everything we do is at the service of bonding you to her." Lucy is able to track your movements and remember your conversations. You can virtually interact with her as you would another person. Fable is eager to distinguish its characters from other A.I. assistants already on the market; the company is all about personality. "For us, using A.I. and natural language processing is a tool to create emotional connection," Saatchi said. Billington and Saatchi predicted what the future of VR and A.I have in store: * You will be able to see embodied versions of Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant and Cortana * A computer-generated influencer will be bigger than the Kardashians * Your OS will look like you, make you laugh, and remember what you don't like * We will all be wearing AR/VR glasses to replace smartphones * More VR movies will win Oscars (following 2017's awarded "Carne y Arena") For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/fable-builds-an-a-i-powered-virtual-character-named-lucy).

Share:
More In Business
Klarna shares jump 30% on Wall Street debut
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Musk loses crown as world’s richest to software giant Larry Ellison
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Load More