{"slug": "startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new", "title": "Startup claims its AI avatar can pass for human in job-interview with creepy new model", "summary": "Tavus, a Bay Area startup, said its new Griffin model fooled 48% of 54 participants in a job-interview test into thinking an AI-generated avatar was a real person, with those who believed it was human averaging 79% confidence. Griffin generates every pixel of every frame in real time from a single reference image, including face, arms, fingers, chair movement, shadows and background, and can interrupt, be interrupted and adapt to new subjects, according to CEO and co-founder Hassaan Raza. The company said the avatars, offered in male and female looks, could be used for students in schools or as tutors.", "body_md": "# Startup claims its AI avatar can pass for human in job-interview with creepy new model\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\nCan you spot the bot?\n\nNearly half the people who chatted with an [AI-generated](https://nypost.com/2026/10/02/us-news/arizona-appeals-court-tosses-gabriel-horcasitas-road-rage-sentence-over-ai-generated-victim-impact-video-of-christopher-pelkey/) “interviewer” thought they were talking to a real person, according to the startup that built it.\n\nBay Area company Tavus said its new model, Griffin, fooled 48% of the 54 participants in a job interview test, a result it says shows the avatar [can pass the Turing Test](https://nypost.com/2026/09/28/opinion/ai-researchers-claim-were-on-track-to-create-new-species-of-superintelligent-machines-in-post-video-debate/) — which measures whether a machine can exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of a human.\n\nParticipants who thought the interviewer was human were 79% confident, on average, according to the company’s [announcement](https://www.tavus.io/griffin). Those who thought it was a bot were 81% confident.\n\nGriffin [generates every pixel of every frame](https://nypost.com/2026/07/23/us-news/eric-adams-targeted-in-bonkers-chinese-ai-videos/) in real time from a single reference image, the company said. That includes not just the face, arms and fingers, but also the movement of the chair, the shadows it casts and the background.\n\nThe avatars come in male and female looks and appear to breathe and blink naturally.\n\n“Humans are evolutionarily designed to communicate face to face. We speak as much through our words as we do our expressions, tone, gestures and timing. So much of human communication is non-verbal. It’s an art, a dance,” company CEO and co-founder Hassaan Raza said in the announcement.\n\nRaza said the new model has eliminated some of the reality-breaking aspects of communicating with an AI-generated avatar — including smiling while hearing bad news.\n\nThe Griffin model reacts in real-time and can even interrupt a person, adjust to new subject matter, and be interrupted without losing its train of thought, the company said.\n\nIn one demonstration, the model teaches a participant how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, showing that it can respond to visual cues when needed. In another clip, the model is seen successfully playing a game of Simon Says.\n\nThe company said the models can be utilized for students in schools or as tutors.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/10/10/tech/new-ai-model-griffin-tricks-48-of-people-into-thinking-its-human/", "published_at": "2026-10-10 16:29:49+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-10 16:48:06.168181+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-products", "computer-vision"], "entities": ["Tavus", "Griffin", "Hassaan Raza"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/startup-claims-its-ai-avatar-can-pass-for-human-in-job-interview-with-creepy-new.jsonld"}}