Lenovo Brings Online Personas of Gen Z to Life Using AI

Today, Lenovo has launched its newest iteration of its Work For Humankind project, titled ‘Meet Your Digital Self’. Curated by Zeno London, the world-first, global campaign was born from a recognition of the impact digital technologies can have on mental wellness, particularly of ‘digital natives’ - three in four British gen z's feel a disconnect between who they are online and offline, leading to feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

The project highlights the role that smarter technology and AI can play in helping to advance change and support in addressing the global youth mental health crisis; aiming to address the challenges young people face when living different lives in the real world versus online. As such, Lenovo worked in partnership with mental health charity, Shout, which offers 24/7 support via a text service.

'Meet Your Digital Self' sees the online personas of two gen z individuals from the UK and Japan brought to life as AI-powered three-dimensional avatars, created by Kaleida. The social experiment facilitated impactful, heartfelt conversations between the participants, their family members, and these avatars – conversations that might not have happened in real life otherwise. The family members either didn’t know about their gen z participant’s online world, or didn’t understand and accept it. From the UK, Oscar’s online persona, Spider, was brought to life.

Sixty-one per cent of gen z wish they could have difficult conversations with loved ones in the real world, and Spider was able to respond to real-time conversation; adjusting their tones, movements and facial expressions based on Oscar’s mannerisms, emotions and vocal signals. The aim was to enable a meaningful conversation between them and their grandmother, Nunu. Helping to bridge the gap between online and offline worlds and allowing them to present their 'true' self and reconnect with Nunu.

By asking the 3D AI avatar of Spider questions, Nunu started to understand Oscar better.

The meeting was captured by Lenovo and curated into a short film, directed by Ismail Shallis and produced by Picture Farm.