Business & Technology
Mark Sagar, Greg Cross and Soul Machines: The New Zealand Roots of Human-Like AI
Soul Machines brought together deep-tech research and entrepreneurship to explore human-like digital characters — a distinctly ambitious approach to human-computer interaction.
Soul Machines brought together deep-tech research and entrepreneurship to explore human-like digital characters — a distinctly ambitious approach to human-computer interaction.
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Research meets commercial ambition
Soul Machines was founded in 2016 around research into biologically inspired digital humans and human-computer interaction. Mark Sagar, an award-winning researcher known for work in visual effects and facial modelling, co-founded the company with entrepreneur Greg Cross. Its early proposition was to make digital interactions feel more responsive and lifelike.
The founders brought different strengths
Sagar’s scientific and technical work and Cross’s experience building technology businesses gave the company a combination of research depth and commercial ambition. The company’s current website identifies both as founders, while also listing a changed executive leadership team. A current profile should keep founder history separate from present-day management.
The hard questions for human-like AI
Digital humans raise questions beyond technical novelty: transparency, consent, representation, privacy and whether users understand when they are interacting with an AI system. The commercial opportunity depends on usefulness and trust, not simply how realistic a digital face appears. That is where the next chapter of this field will be judged.
Sources and further reading
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