: a psychological effect characterized by feelings of unease or revulsion in response to the nearly but imperfectly lifelike quality of something (such as a doll, a robot, an AI-generated image or voice, or a computer-animated character) that is intended to simulate a human
Synthetic voices may be perceived as eerie or strange, reminiscent of the uncanny valley, a phenomenon describing the negative evaluation of near humanlike entities.—Scientific Reports
"The uncanny valley effect describes how we react emotionally when things start to seem increasingly human," says Dr Steph Lay, a horror writer, psychologist, and expert on the uncanny. "At first, we respond positively, but that only holds up to a point. … There's something creepy about how they're nearly human but not quite right," Lay says.—Becca Caddy
—often regarded figuratively as a valley
If we're ever going to venture through to the other side of the uncanny valley … it'll be because we've finally imbued our virtual characters with natural appearances and movement.—George Dvorsky
The … performances are the best I've ever seen in a video game, conveying each wrinkle and nuance of each actor's work without ever dipping into the uncanny valley …—Scott Meslow
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: the often subtle imperfections in something that is intended to simulate a human (as in appearance, speech, or behavior) which tend to produce feelings of unease or revulsion
Look for common signs of AI, including "the uncanny valley," abnormalities in a video or photo, and odd speech patterns that are overly repetitive and vague.—Cyrus Grant
The uncanny valley isn't just a design flaw; it's the edge of something we instinctively know isn't quite right. … no matter how sharp the jawline or smooth the delivery, there's nothing more suspicious than a toothy smile that never reaches the eyes.—Eric Hal Schwartz
… the "uncanny valleys" created on the actors' faces by digital de-aging …—Adrian Martin
Note:
Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori hypothesized in 1970 that humans have an affinity for objects that simulate human characteristics, but that the affinity sharply drops and is replaced by a feeling of eeriness as the object becomes more but not completely lifelike. Affinity then rises again as true human likeness—a living person—is achieved. The phenomenon is often represented on a line graph showing the "valley" of the sharp drop and subsequent rise in affinity. The Japanese name for Mori's theory was translated as "uncanny valley" and eventually applied outside of robotics.
Scientific Reports
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