Apple's Cutting-Edge AI Tech 'HUGS' Revealed: Next Step In Digital Avatar Creation?

Apple Inc. AAPL has published a research paper on its groundbreaking generative AI technology, HUGS, which can generate a digital human avatar from a brief video in around 30 minutes.

What Happened: The company’s latest technology, HUGS, also known as Human Gaussian Splats, employs machine learning and computer vision strategies to develop digital human avatars, reported AppleInsider.

The research paper on Apple’s Machine Learning Research page illustrated that minimal video footage of the subject in motion is needed for the system to function.

The technique can leverage short video clips, sometimes as limited as 50 to 100 frames, equivalent to two to four seconds of 24fps video.

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According to Apple, This revolutionary system can create a fully-animatable human avatar within 30 minutes — a substantial advancement over past methods. The created avatar reportedly has top-tier rendering quality and can be produced at a rendering speed of 60fps at HD resolution.

The research paper was authored by Muhammed Kocabas, Rick Chang, James Gabriel, Oncel Tuzel, and Anurag Ranjan in partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

Why It Matters: Last month, during Apple’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook emphasized AI’s central role in the company’s products and future growth. He also declared AI a “fundamental technology” integrated into virtually every product they ship.

Another report indicated Apple’s shift towards software innovations to enhance its upcoming iPhone 16 sales, with AI features as a key focus.

The unveiling of the HUGS technology is a clear step in this AI-centric direction, potentially offering transformative features for future Apple products.

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This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.