* **Static avatars** – *Virtual influencers are the prime example of static avatars today, though not the only example, for instance, popular NFT avatars. Virtual influencers gain their interactivity via social media, in that they mimic the human interactivity on social media, to the point they become indistinguishable from humans. (I call this the “social media test”.) Today, we see virtual influencers becoming more animated via the same techniques used for virtual YouTubers.*
* **Human-inhabited avatars** – *Virtual YouTubers (VTubers), otherwise known as virtual streamers, would be the prime example of human-inhabited avatars today, as they are trying to do something in the real world – in other words, imitate human influencers on YouTube and other popular streaming sites. Game and virtual world avatars are also forms of human-inhabited avatars, but usually not as articulated and not trying to do something in the real world (like imitate humans).*
* **AI-inhabited avatars** – *AI-inhabited avatars, or virtual robots, are not fully here yet, though well on the way. Prime examples of virtual robots would be Soul Machines and UneeQ products, though there are by now many others. At a minimum, virtual robots would have some form of dialogue system (chatbot engine) interfaced with an interactive, real-time 3D model, ideally including integrated real-time behaviours. (At some point, real-time deepfakes might substitute for 3D models.)*
* **Avatar-inhabited robots** – *Avatar-inhabited robots do not fully exist yet. One example of avatar-inhabited robots would be the class of rear-projection robots like Furhat. The general idea of avatar-inhabited robots is that virtual robots could theoretically slip into physical robots as something like a soul.*