This AI Santa Claus Is So Realistic You Can Skip The Trip To The Mall This Year
Remember that scene from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" where Clark Griswold loses his you-know-what in an epic, angry rant? That's the kind of rage that can come from braving the crowds during the holiday season. Well, if your only reason for abandoning online shopping for a trip to the mall is to see Santa Claus, you might be happy to know you can book a virtual visit anytime you want, and it's free.
Not that I'm necessarily recommending you go that route—take your kids to see the 'real' thing, for goodness sake. But if you're in a pinch and/or want to see what creative things companies are doing with artificial intelligence these days, then fire up your webcam and sit for a spell with Santa Claus, courtesy of Tavus.io, and see if you fall on the 'Naughty' or 'Nice' list.
I gave it a spin myself and was not expecting a whole lot, but came away impressed, at least for the most part. Tavus is pitching the demo as the "world's first fully AI-powered replica of the man in the red suit," and it's quite convincing. Similar to giving ChatGPT a call (which you can now do).
The AI Santa Claus is based on the company's Conversational Video Interface (CVI). It can "see, hear, and respond" in real time, and while we would talk over each other at certain points, a realistic back-and-forth can certainly be had. The AI Santa is also remarkably observant, too. At one point, he took notice of a partially obstructed cat tree in the background (in poor lighting, no less) and correctly surmised that I have a soft spot for animals.
Whether asked outright or just part of natural conversation, Santa's prone to making all kinds of observations from what is displayed on your webcam. He's also willing to answer a wide assortment of questions, though if you go poking and prodding for details about the underlying technology that makes him tick, he plays it coy. As Tavus explains in a blog post, while this is fun demo, the company has bigger aspirations.
"AI Santa isn’t just for fun—it’s a proof of concept for Tavus’ innovative CVI technology. Developers can explore how Tavus APIs power real-time interactions and hyper-realistic video interfaces. Fork the AI Santa repository to build your own digital twin experiences or integrate the CVI API into projects across industries like healthcare, education, and customer service," Tavus explains.
As you chat with Santa, meter at the bottom tracks how naughty or nice you've been, based on your interaction. The free demo lasts five minutes, after which you can input your email for a summary of the conversation and to see which list you've made, and why. It's pretty neat.
