news reports promoted by pro-China

Avatars can speak in multiple languages. And, for chatbot scenarios, they can tap AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 to respond to off-script questions from customers.

Now, there are countless ways such a tool could be abused — which Microsoft to its credit realizes.

(Similar avatar-generating tech from AI startup Synthesia has been misused to produce propaganda in Venezuela and false news reports promoted by pro-China social media accounts.) Most Azure subscribers will only be able to access prebuilt — not custom — avatars at launch; custom avatars are currently a “limited access” capability available by registration only and “only for certain use cases,” Microsoft says.