Zoom CEO wants to use AI to create 'digital clones' that can attend meetings in your place

Tired of back-to-back online meetings? Zoom may have a solution under way as it's planning on using artificial intelligence (AI) to create "digital clones" that can attend video conferences for you.

In an interview with The Verge, Zoom's CEO Eric Yuan and his team revealed that they are working on a "digital-twin technology," which would allow you to create a "deepfake avatar of yourself" that can go to Zoom meetings on your behalf and make decisions for you while you focus on other important things.

"I can send a digital version of myself to join so I can go to the beach. Or I do not need to check my emails; the digital version of myself can read most of the emails," Yuan said.

According to Yuan, it's important for them to think of ways to use AI to help lessen the time it takes to make phone calls, join meetings, send emails, delete spam, reply to text messages, among others.

"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," he said.

"You and I can have more time to have more in-person interactions, but maybe not for work," he added. "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? Today, the reason why we cannot do that is because every day is busy, five days a week."

Yuan clarified that the planned digital clone would not only take Zoom calls, but would also handle other workloads such as messaging, phone calls, emails, whiteboard, coding, creative tasks, manager tasks, and project management.

He admitted, however, that this may "take some time" to accomplish as AI technology has not yet reached a level where such can be made possible.

"I think in a few years, we’ll get there, but we’re just at the beginning," Yuan said.

One of the many criticisms of using AI tools is its possibility to replace humans, but Yuan emphasized that nothing can beat in-person interactions.

"If I stop by your office, let’s say I give you a hug, you shake my hand, right? I think AI cannot replace that. We still need to have in-person interaction. That is very important," he said.