Lemon Slice nabs $10.5M from YC and Matrix to build out its digital avatar tech (techcrunch.com)

Lemon Slice, a digital avatar generation startup, has secured $10.5 million in seed funding from investors including Y Combinator and Matrix Partners to enhance its innovative digital avatar technology. The company's flagship product, Lemon Slice-2, employs a 20-billion-parameter diffusion model capable of creating highly interactive digital avatars from a single image. These avatars can seamlessly integrate with knowledge bases to function as AI agents across various applications, from customer service to mental health support. This marks a significant advancement in making AI interactions more lifelike and engaging by incorporating video alongside traditional text. The significance of Lemon Slice's approach lies in its ambition to overcome the limitations of current avatar technologies, which often feel rigid or "creepy." By leveraging a general-purpose diffusion model, Lemon Slice aims to unlock the potential for both human-like and non-human avatars, enhancing their realism and fluidity in real-time interactions, crucial for applications like online learning and e-commerce. The company emphasizes its commitment to ethical AI use, with built-in guardrails to prevent unauthorized cloning while utilizing large language models for content moderation. As virtual communication becomes increasingly prominent, Lemon Slice's unique technical strategy positions it to potentially redefine the avatar landscape and address the uncanny valley challenge.