You may not be familiar with Viggle AI, but you may have seen the viral memes it creates. The Canadian artificial intelligence startup has created dozens of videos that show rapper Lil Yachty jumping on stage at a summer music festival. In a video, it shows Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker replacing Lil Yachty. In another, Jesus seemed to be alive to the crowd. Users created countless versions of this video, but an artificial intelligence startup was promoting the memes. And the executive director of Viggle says that YouTube videos inspire their IA models.
Viggle introduced the basic model of 3D video, JST-1, to “understand the physics in a realistic manner”, as stated by the company in its press release. Hang Chu, executive director of Viggle, says that the main difference between Viggle and other IA video models is that Viggle allows users to specify the movements they want to make the characters. Other IA video models often create less realistic character movements that do not follow the laws of physics, but Chu says that Viggle’s models are different.
“We are creating a new type of graphic motor, but entirely with neuronal networks. Our model is designed to have that understanding, and that is why it is much better. In terms of controllability and efficiency of construction.” For example, to create a video of Joker as Lil Yachty, simply upload an image of the character (Joker) to the original video (Lil Yachty dancing on the stage) and adopt that movement.
Alternatively, users can upload images of characters along with instructions on how to animate them. As a third option, Viggle allows users to create animated characters from scratch with only text instructions. de Viggle; Chu says that the model has gained wide adoption as a visualization tool for creative individuals. The videos are not perfect (they are intercut and the characters are inexpressive), but Chu says that they have proven to be effective for filmmakers, animators and video game designers who convert their ideas into something visual.
Viggle currently offers a limited and free version of its IA model in Discord and its web application. The company also offers a $9.99 subscription to increase capacity and give some creators special access through the Creators Program. The CEO says that Viggle is talking with film and video game studios about granting licenses for the technology, but is also seeing its adoption among independent animators and content creators.
On Monday, Viggle announced that it had raised $19 million from Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with the participation of Too Small Fish. The startup says this round will help Viggle scale, accelerate product development, and expand its team. Viggle told TechCrunch that it partners with Google Cloud and other cloud providers to train and execute its artificial intelligence models. Those Google Cloud connections often include access to GPU and TPU clusters, but usually do not include YouTube videos to train IA models.
