Apple Vision Pro Persona feels like a deepfake of yourself

I don't enjoy being negative about new products before getting my hands on them. Humans are resistant to change, and I like to look for benefits when new tech rolls around.

But Apple's new Persona – a technically impressive digital representation of your face – on FaceTime using the new Vision Pro headset is unsettling, weird, and unnecessary.

At best: Persona actively makes FaceTime worse.

At worst: if this becomes commonplace, when do we see our first deepfake FaceTime scam calls?

When we FaceTime someone with cameras on, the entire point is seeing their actual face. Apple makes excellent cameras, and FaceTime is one of the best video calling systems out there.

The simple act of noticing a new haircut on FaceTime creates important human connection. "Nice t-shirt! New?" "Hey that plant on your shelf...maybe you should water it." "Is that your Dad back there? Say hi for me!" "Wait are you crying?"

Quietly noticing Grandma looks a bit tired or unwell. Not mentioning it, but arranging to see if someone can visit.

Creating a Persona, a digital representation of yourself, doesn't show how you look today. It creates an uncanny valley, without any real benefit.

Obviously when you've got a big ski mask looking device on your head, you can't show your actual face. And it's not mandatory to FaceTime on this device.

So:

1. Don't use the Vision Pro headset for FaceTime. Not to be all 20th century about this, but if you want people to see your face, show them your face.
2. For those who do use a Vision Pro for FaceTime, visionOS should default to the cute and friendly Memoji faces instead of Persona.

Yes Memoji can be generic, cartoony, and are no replacement for a real face. But they clearly let people know "this person can't show their face right now" in a way that deepfake-esque version of my head doesn't.

Persona is makes an unnecessarily creepy tradeoff for a device with so much potential.

The product isn't out until next year, so it's not too late to drop this aspect, or at least switch out for Memoji-as-default avatar.