Nearly half of test subjects mistook Tavus' AI video avatar for a real person on a one-minute call
Tavus has introduced Griffin, what the company calls the first "Human Interaction Model" (HIM), a class of model designed to understand and carry on face-to-face conversations in real time. Griffin processes speech, facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, and pauses while both receiving and generating video.
In a Tavus study, 48 percent of participants believed Griffin was a real person after a one-minute video call. Previous systems maxed out at two percent. In what Tavus describes as an independent Nvidia test measuring how human an AI feels in direct audio-video conversation, Griffin scored 3.83 points. Actual humans scored 3.92, the previous best AI model hit 2.80.
A preview called Griffin-Lite is available to "select testers as a research preview," with a more capable version coming once "safety concerns are addressed." Tavus lists tutoring, practicing difficult conversations, and camera-based tech support as potential use cases. Ad
The San Francisco AI startup was founded in 2020 and has raised about $64 million. It started out building personalized AI videos for sales and marketing, then expanded into live video conversations with digital personas . More details on Griffin are in the Tavus research report . Ad
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