On 1 October 2026 Tavus introduced Griffin, the first model it says has passed a video Turing test, from an X account with about 11,500 followers. Tavus ran the launch with more than one distribution partner, and Debuts' creators were part of the first wave. The post passed 8 million views inside nine hours and sits at 21 million two weeks on. Here is what we did, what others did, and what the market did on its own.
Tavus had launched before. Its previous model post, Phoenix-4.5 on 10 September 2026, reached about 182,000 views in three weeks. The account had about 11,500 followers on 1 October. Griffin came with a bigger claim: in a live study, 48% of the people who talked to it thought it was a real human.
"Introducing Griffin, the first model to pass the video Turing test." Then the proof: 48% of people who talked to it live thought it was a real human, against under 3% for earlier systems, and number one on NVIDIA's benchmark for full-duplex AI video. A 1:49 video, then a thread of live demos. Tavus called Griffin the first Human Interaction Model.
The brief. Developers, founders and operators, AI research voices, and the tech generalists who decide what trends. Quote posts had to carry a real reaction to the demo, not a repeat of the claim.
The creators. 150 creators, every one a real person with a real account. Between them 55 million followers.
The first hour. X decides in the first hour. Quote posts with a real take count for more than likes. A post that gets hundreds of quote posts in its first hour gets shown to people who do not follow the account. That is the job of a creator network, and on Griffin it was done by 2PM UTC. After that the market took over: far more people posted about Griffin on launch day than any network briefed.
What we did not do. No bots, no bought engagement, no paid boosting, no copy-and-paste comments. Every account is a real person, so the engagement stays. Platforms remove fake engagement within days. Ours is still there at day 14.
In two weeks, Tavus grew from 11,500 to 43,000 followers, adding 31,500 and nearly quadrupling its audience. With Griffin-Lite still in research preview, the launch gave Tavus a larger audience to introduce the product to when it becomes commercially available.
