GenAI Today is no stranger to news concerning Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the potential therein when smartly utilized artificial intelligence enters the fray.
- In late July, I penned a story about Mavenir’s end-to-end, cloud-native, green-by-design solutions powered by AI and how the company teamed up with NVIDIA and AWS to effectively define a Service Assurance AI/Ops platform, which may lead to fewer burdens on maintenance and support teams via harnessing the power of GenAI to enhance how teams approach modern service-level agreements (SLAs).
And today, we’ve got another AWS/AI-centric story to add to this list:
This morning, RealAvatar — a conversational AI startup with authentic, verified avatars of leading educators and other renowned individuals, primed for virtual interactions with users — announced that it’s officially been selected for the second cohort of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator.
For context, this AWS Generative AI Accelerator (launched by AWS as part of its flagship startup program) is a global, 10-week hybrid program that supports inspired, early-age startups to, quote, “prove what’s truly possible with GenAI.”
“Success takes a lot more than just having a great business idea and the hustle to make it real,” one AWS representative wrote. “It also requires the right technology tools, expert advice, and a supportive community along the way. That’s where AWS?comes in.”
In partnership with NVIDIA, Meta and Mistral AI, the AWS Generative AI Accelerator program identifies teams that are actively using GenAI to solve complex challenges and helps them scale and grow, in turn. Participants gain access to AWS Promotional Credits (i.e. up to $1 million, in some cases) to build, train, test and launch their solutions using the full breadth of AWS services. They can also access a community of mentors (and the learning resources that come with it) to further AI/ML technologies that spur success for modernization-focused businesses.
For RealAvatar, specifically, this is an opportunity to give a significant boost to its avatar-ready platform (which, as mentioned, links up with public figures like professional athletes, influential educators, artists, other industry thought leaders, etcetera). As an example, RealAvatar recently launched from Andrew Ng's AI Fund studio and has assembled, quote, “an all-star roster helmed by Gold Record producer and two-time founder Jeff Daniel, as well as Tim Westergren (founder and CEO of Pandora), noted AI scientist Nedelina Teneva (Amazon, UC-Berkeley), and product leader Dmitry Pyanov (Replika). We’re talking about bespoke, life-like personas that respond dynamically via voice, text, and video.
"Our participation in the AWS Generative AI Accelerator program will enable fans to connect with their heroes as we develop the first real-time verified avatars with leading public figures," said Jeff Daniel, CEO of RealAvatar. "The multi-modal conversational avatars we are developing present a significant opportunity to evolve online education, mentorship and coaching, while also enabling a closer bond between creators and their followers."
“This new generation of startups is at the forefront of a transformative new wave, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with artificial intelligence while bringing exciting new solutions to market,” said Jon Jones, Vice President of Go-to-Market at AWS and executive sponsor of the program. “Expanding the cohort for our Generative AI Accelerator is a testament to the potential we see for startups to usher in new innovations for customers in an increasingly AI-driven world. AWS is committed to fostering groundbreaking technologies and supporting visionary founders on their journey to solve the world’s biggest challenges.”
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
