ObEN

ObEN is an artificial intelligence and generative media technology company developing personalized digital identities, synthetic voices and interactive 3D avatars. Founded in 2014 and incubated at Idealab in Pasadena, California, its work centers on Personal AI (PAI): digital representations designed to reflect an individual's appearance, voice and behavioral characteristics.

The company's technology combines computer vision, speech synthesis and conversational intelligence. Its avatar creation tools use smartphone selfies and short audio samples to generate personalized digital humans, with capabilities spanning multilingual speech, singing synthesis and natural language interaction. These technologies support applications involving consumers, celebrities and enterprise customers.

Digital humans across media and healthcare

ObEN has applied its technology to entertainment, broadcasting, retail and healthcare. Its projects include AI twin presenters for CCTV's 2019 Network Spring Festival Gala and the SNH48 music video Now and Forever, which paired a performer with her digital counterpart. Other applications include a virtual art concierge for Shanghai K11 and Tara, a conversational healthcare avatar developed for MedStar Health heart disease research.

These projects illustrate different uses for personalized avatars: presenting broadcast content, performing alongside human artists, introducing visitors to cultural material and supporting patient interaction. The company's entertainment work also extends to celebrity virtual identities and automated streaming personalities, combining recognizable appearances and voices with interactive digital experiences.

Platforms and developer infrastructure

Alongside custom avatar development, ObEN offers PAI Studio, a software platform for automated content generation, livestreaming and video production. Its services include voice simulation and digital human creation for organizations building virtual assistants or media experiences.

The company's more recent web presence presents ObenAI, expanding its offerings into generative media developer APIs, model fine-tuning, inference acceleration and serverless GPU compute. This broadens its business from individual avatar applications to infrastructure supporting the development and deployment of generative AI systems.

Originally incorporated as Nookster, Inc., the company adopted the legal name ObEN, Inc. in March 2016. It remains a privately held operating technology company.