SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 10, 2025--
Tavus, the leading human computing company building lifelike AI humans that can see, hear, respond, and take actions, today announced AI Santa 2.0, the most advanced and emotionally intelligent version of Santa ever created. Built as an official Tavus PAL, AI Santa brings the magic of the North Pole to life with human-level presence, memory, and multimodal communication across video, voice, and text.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251209222532/en/
Last year, millions of people spoke with the original AI Santa through Tavus. This year, he’s back, with a few upgrades.
AI Santa represents the future of what an AI human can be: warm, expressive, personal and emotionally aware. Built to build relationships, understand your ongoing Christmas chaos, and bring holiday cheer to every interaction, AI Santa 2.0 demonstrates how Tavus transforms artificial intelligence into something that feels remarkably alive in a way never achieved before.
At Tavus, we teach machines the art of being human. Our belief is simple: technology should meet people on their terms, not the other way around. By giving AI the ability to perceive, emote, remember, and respond with real nuance, we’re building a future where the next interfaces feel personal, intuitive, and alive.
Introducing AI Santa 2.0
Now that AI Santa is a Tavus PAL, this architecture gives him:
Santa maintains the jolly, warm personality known worldwide but now interacts with users in a deeply personalized, lifelike way made possible only through Tavus’s next-generation AI-human platform.
Accessible to Everyone
Beginning today, anyone can meet Santa through his public North Pole hotline at https://santa.tavus.io, with no account required. Users receive a free three-minute demo daily to say hello and experience the magic firsthand.
For those seeking the full, unlimited Santa experience, Santa is also available inside the Tavus PALs platform, where he has full memory, perception, and open-ended conversation abilities.
Inside a Tavus account, Santa can:
Developers can also bring AI Santa to your own corner of the internet. Embed Santa’s hyperrealistic, emotionally intelligent avatar on any website or app using Tavus APIs.
Sign up to Tavus to access the APIs, fork our open-sourced Santa repo, or drop him directly into your product with just a few lines of code.
Powered by Industry-Defining Technology
AI Santa 2.0 is built on Tavus’s multimodal suite of proprietary state-of-the-art models:
These models, combined with Tavus CVI, a proprietary framework for conversational video, enable the world’s first and only emotional, perceptive, and humanlike AI holiday companion.
Pricing & Availability
Public Santa Demo
Free at https://santa.tavus.io
Includes 3 minutes of daily access via video, voice, or text.
Full Santa Experience (Inside Tavus PALs)
Available through early access in the Tavus platform.
Users can join the waitlist at https://platform.tavus.io/auth/sign-up.
Bulk and enterprise experiences for brands, malls, classrooms, and creators are available upon request through the Tavus website.
Tavus Offerings
Alongside PALs, Tavus offers APIs and enterprise tools for scalable AI-human deployments.
PALs
Ready-to-use AI humans for consumers that handle conversation, assistance, and everyday tasks across video, voice, and text.
Developer APIs
For developers to build custom AI-human experiences, interactive avatars, embedded agents, and automated workflows across education, training, healthcare, sales, customer success, and more.
Enterprise Solutions
Tailored, secure deployments for recruiting, healthcare, training, and any organization that needs custom AI humans at scale.
About Tavus
Tavus is a San Francisco–based AI research company pioneering human computing, the next era of computing built around adaptive, emotionally intelligent AI humans. The company has raised $65M and is backed by CRV, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Y Combinator. Tavus builds foundational models that teach machines to see, hear, respond, and act like people do. The company’s research team brings experience from leading universities and top AI labs, led by researchers specializing in rendering, perception, and affective computing.
In addition to PALs for consumers, Tavus offers a full suite of APIs for developers and businesses, powering personalized AI avatars, embedded video agents, automated customer experiences, and interactive characters across the web. Tavus also provides enterprise solutions for companies like Amazon, Better.com, Deloitte, EY, and thousands more, enabling teams to deploy emotionally intelligent AI humans at scale.
Learn more at https://www.tavus.io
Tavus announces AI Santa 2.0, the world's first emotionally intelligent holiday PAL with memory, perception, and multimodal interaction. Available free at https://santa.tavus.io.
GOMA, Congo (AP) — In a maternity ward in eastern Congo, Irene Nabudeba rested her hands on her bulging midsection, worried about giving birth in a city under rebel control.
The conflict that flared this year has left many medical supplies stranded beyond the front line. Infrastructure like running water has collapsed, along with the economy in Goma, the region's humanitarian and commercial hub.
And now the one glimmer of hope for mothers — a free maternity care program offered by Congo's government — has ended after it was not renewed in June. It was not clear why, and Congolese and M23 officials did not respond to questions.
Nabudeba has five children and wonders whether the sixth will survive.
“At the hospital, they ask us for money that we don’t have. I’m pushing myself to come to the consultations, but for the delivery ... I don’t know where I’ll find the money,” she said at the Afia Himbi health center.
Several women told The Associated Press they cannot afford maternal care after Congo's program that was aimed at reducing some of the world's highest maternal and neonatal death rates ended earlier this year. The program launched in 2023 offered free consultations and treatment for illnesses and at-risk pregnancies at selected health facilities across the country.
Congo ranked second in maternal deaths globally with 19,000 in 2023, behind Nigeria's 75,000 deaths, according to U.N. statistics.
Health workers said more women in Goma are now giving birth at home without skilled help, sometimes in unsanitary conditions, leaving them vulnerable to hemorrhage, infection or death.
Clinics and hospitals were already struggling after the M23 rebels, backed by neighboring Rwanda, seized Goma in an escalation of fighting in January.
Although clashes have subsided amid U.S.- and Qatar-led peace efforts, fighting continues and the conflict has collapsed public institutions, disrupted essential services and displaced more than 700,000 people, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.
In Goma, the armed rebels are seen everywhere, making a pregnant woman's walk to clinics another source of anxiety.
Freddy Kaniki, deputy coordinator of M23, asserted to the AP that the free maternal care “was not renewed because it was a failure.” Congolese officials did not respond to questions.
Rwanda denies supporting the M23 despite U.N. experts saying they have evidence of it. Rwanda prides itself on health care and recently signed a five-year deal with the U.S. for investment of up to $158 million in its own healthcare sector.
The collapse of essential services in rebel-held areas, combined with mass displacement and insecurity, has left civilians struggling to access even basic care.
An International Committee of the Red Cross assessment in September found that at least 85% of health facilities were experiencing medicine shortages, and nearly 40% have seen an exodus of staff after the conflict surged in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
The ICRC in October said 200 health facilities in eastern Congo had run out of medicines because of looting and supply disruptions. Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has reported hospitals attacked, ambulances blocked and medical staff threatened or killed.
Childbirth at a clinic in Goma now costs $5 to $10, out of reach for many families in a region where over 70% of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.
Franck Ndachetere Kandonyi, chief nurse at the Afia Himbi health center, said the number of births there under the free program had jumped from around five a month to more than 20. But the program ended in June.
Facing a table of statistics in his office, Kandonyi said the number of births per month is now down to nine.
“When a parent cannot even pay 10,000 Congolese francs ($4.50) for their wife’s or child’s care, it’s a real problem,” the nurse said.
Meanwhile, banks have closed in Goma, prices have soared and the dollar has depreciated.
Nabudeba's husband, a driver, has been unemployed since January. She said her family is barely surviving.
“When the war broke out, we lost all our resources,” she said. “Lately, the situation has not been favorable, and we are suffering greatly.”
Across town at the Rehema Health Center, Ernestine Baleke waited for help with her ninth pregnancy, with concern on her face. She said she doesn't know where she will get money for the delivery.
Her husband lost a factory job when the place was looted earlier in the conflict, she said. Then their house burned.
“I don’t even have 100 francs (45 cents) in my pocket,” Baleke said.
She walks more than half a mile to the hospital because she cannot afford transportation. Three months remain before her delivery.
“The authorities must restore free healthcare," Baleke said. “We risk dying in our homes while giving birth.”
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Ernestine Baleke walks to the Rehema Health Center to receive pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Ernestine Baleke rests on a wall after receiving pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Ernestine Baleke receives pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Irene Nabudeba, pregnant, mother of 5, waits for a consultation that used to be free at the Afia Himbi Hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Irene Nabudeba, pregnant, mother of 5, waits for a consultation that used to be free at the Afia Himbi Hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
