Rethinking Some Virtual Human Applications

Increasingly realistic virtual environments incorporating virtual characters have been used to train or assess actual behavior, such as of people at risk, and identify reasons to remediate or intervene. Technology has improved so rapidly that today's capabilities to create situations to focus training and intervention outshine past efforts. To name just a few current examples, tools like Unreal's MetaHuman Creator for creating characters, Midjourney for creating environments, OpenAI's ChatGPT for scripting, and GIFT for tutoring have enormous potential, as these tools promise to reduce simulation costs and increase realism. This paper, in contrast, discusses some movement in the other direction: Recent efforts suggest that increased realism may not always have resulting cost- benefit for training and assessment. Lessons learned and recommendations are presented to guide future developers.