a16z Interview with Hedra Founder Michael Lingelbach: How Generative Videos Emerge from Memes to Ignite the Next Trend?

Hedra founder Michael Lingelbach discusses how generative AI is transitioning from viral memes to enterprise-level applications, showcasing its innovative potential in virtual influencers and interactive content creation. This article is based on an interview with Michael Lingelbach by Justine Moore, Matt Bornstein, and a16z, originally titled 'Why AI Characters & Virtual Influencers Are the Next Frontier in Video ft Hedra’s Michael Lingelbach', compiled and authored by Janna, ChainCatcher. (Background: Huang Jen-Hsun's Computex speech) In ten years, the 'generative AI' revolution will encompass all industries, making token production humanity's primary task. Michael Lingelbach is the founder and CEO of Hedra. He was a PhD student in computer science at Stanford University and also a stage actor, combining his passion for technology and performance to lead Hedra in developing industry-leading generative video models. Hedra is a company focused on full-body, dialogue-driven video generation, with technology that supports a wide range of applications from virtual influencers to educational content, significantly lowering the barriers to content creation. This article is translated from the a16z Podcast, focusing on how AI technology is crossing from viral meme content to enterprise applications, showcasing the innovative potential of generative video technology. Below is the dialogue, compiled by ChainCatcher (with some omissions). TL&DR: Artificial Intelligence is seamlessly connecting consumer and enterprise scenarios, such as this technology generating baby ads to promote enterprise software, highlighting the enthusiasm of companies embracing new technology. Viral meme content has become a powerful tool for startups, quickly boosting brand awareness as seen with the 'Baby Podcast', showcasing clever market strategies. Full-body expressive and dialogue-driven video generation technology fills a creative gap, greatly reducing content production time and costs. Virtual influencers like John Lawa shape unique digital characters through the 'Moses Podcast', giving content distinct personality and appeal. Content creators like 'mom bloggers' leverage technology to quickly produce videos, easily maintaining brand activity and audience connection. Real-time interactive video models open up two-way dialogues with virtual characters, bringing immersive experiences to education and entertainment. Character-centric video generation technology emphasizes personality expression and multi-subject control, meeting the demands of dynamic content creation. Integrating dialogue, action, and rendering, platform strategies create smooth generative media experiences to cater to high-quality content needs. Interactive avatar models support dynamic adjustments of video emotions and elements, heralding the next wave of innovation in content creation. (1) AI Fusion from Memes to Enterprise Applications Justine: We find it very interesting to see the crossover application of AI between consumer and enterprise scenarios. A few days ago, I saw an ad text generated by Hedra on (Forbes), featuring a talking baby promoting enterprise software. But this also indicates that we are in a new era, where companies are rapidly embracing AI technology, showing great enthusiasm. Michael: As a startup, our responsibility is to draw inspiration from consumer user signals and transform them into next-generation content production tools that enterprise users can rely on. In recent months, some viral content generated by Hedra has garnered widespread attention, from early anime-style characters to the 'Baby Podcast', and to this week's trending topic – I'm actually not sure what that is. Memes are a very effective market strategy that quickly captures user minds by reaching a large audience. This strategy is becoming increasingly common among startups. For example, another company invested by a16z, Cluey, gained significant brand recognition through viral dissemination on Twitter. The essence of memes is that technology provides a medium for people to unleash creativity quickly, and short video content has dominated cultural consciousness. Hedra's generative video technology enables users to transform any idea into content in seconds. (2) Why Creators and Influencers Choose Hedra Justine: Can you explain why people use Hedra to create memes, and how they use it, and what the connection to your target market is? Michael: Hedra is the first company to deploy full-body expressive, dialogue-driven generative video models on a large scale. We support users in creating millions of pieces of content, and our rapid popularity is due to filling a critical gap in the content creation technology stack. Previously, producing generative podcasts, animated character dialogue scenes, or singing videos was very difficult—either costly, inflexible, or time-consuming. Our model is fast and cost-effective, thus spurring the rise of virtual influencers. Justine: Recently, CNBC published an article about virtual influencers powered by Hedra. Can you give a few specific examples of how influencers are using Hedra? Michael: For example, renowned actor John Lawa (who plays Taco in The League) has used Hedra to create a series of content from the 'Moses Podcast' to the 'Baby Podcast', and these characters now have unique identities. Another example is Neural Viz, which built a character-centric 'metaverse' based on Hedra. Generative performances differ from pure media models; they require injecting personality, consistency, and control into the model, which is particularly important for video performance. Therefore, we see the unique personalities of these virtual characters starting to become popular, even though they are not real people. (3) Virtual Influencers and Digital Avatars Matt: I've seen many Hedra videos on Instagram Reels, featuring both entirely new characters like the aliens in Neural Viz series—previously only achievable by Hollywood blockbusters—and real people using these tools to expand their digital presence. Many influencers or content creators do not want to meticulously dress up, adjust lighting, or apply makeup every time. Hedra allows crowds like 'mom bloggers' to quickly generate videos to convey messages without spending a lot of time on preparation. For instance, they can directly use Hedra to generate content that talks to the camera. Michael: This is an important observation. Maintaining a personal brand is crucial for content creators, but staying online 24/7 is very challenging. If a creator takes a week off from updating, they may lose followers. Hedra's automation technology significantly lowers the barrier to creation. Users combine tools like Deep Research to generate scripts and then use Hedra to create audio-visual content, which is automatically published to their channels. We see more and more workflows around autonomous digital identities, serving not just real people but also entirely fictional characters. (4) The Potential and Challenges of Interactive Videos Justine: Now many historical videos are trending on Reels. In the past, we...