Ever wish you could appear smarter than you are? Seinfeld’s George Costanza often ran into this problem. Often intellectually overmatched, he devised all kinds of tricks to seem clever. Once he even convinced his pal Elaine to complete an IQ test for him just so he could impress his girlfriend.
But my favorite George solution to the not-appearing-dumb-problem?
He’d mutter something incoherent when asked a challenging question. Here’s an example: In episode 2 of season 8, “The Soul Mate,” George gets put on the spot when asked to name his favorite poet.
Unfortunately, George cannot think of one. Wishing to save face at a board meeting for his late fiancé’s charity, George mumbles the name “Nastrikov”—clearly someone he just invented that very second.
This is a comedic version of a common quandary.
While most of us don’t bluff our way through like George, we’ve often wished we could access outside intelligence in a pinch. Kind of like the “Call a friend” feature from the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Business professionals could especially benefit from accessing the brilliant thoughts of geniuses for any number of challenges we face daily. Unfortunately, humans don’t (yet) possess telepathic powers.
Actually, we don’t need them.
We can tap into AI—and with it the vast repository of human intellect, including dead geniuses. That leads us to the work of digital marketer Srinidhi Ranganathan. This month he published a blog describing how his group, NewBots Studio, has just launched Artificial General Intelligence mind clones: “Imagine your business powered by Einstein’s curiosity, Da Vinci’s creativity, or Tesla’s ingenuity—working for you, 24/7, in the form of AGI agents that automate everything. HR, marketing, sales, design, development—every process streamlined, optimized, perfected. These AI clones don’t just generate content; they strategize.”
Reading these words reminds me of another illuminating pop cultural reference—the ship’s computer from Star Trek. Often, when Kirk and the gang got into a jam they’d consult this outsourced mind. It served as a sounding board, giving them an intellectual edge.
Now it seems what was once science fiction is becoming science fact. Before we explore the ramifications, let us recall that many people, me included, doubted we would ever achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI.)
Until now, the common understanding has been that only artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) exists. Geeksforgeeks.org defines the term this way: “Narrow artificial intelligence can also be defined as weak intelligence aimed at performing certain tasks. Facial recognition, weather analysis, playing chess, etc. It is specifically programmed to perform tasks.”
By contrast, AGI refers to human-level intelligence, while artificial super intelligence (ASI) surpasses even the brightest human minds. Think: Samantha, the artificially intelligent operating system from the film Her voiced by actress Scarlett Johansson.
So have we achieved the holy grail of AGI? The jury is out. Rather than debate the issue, let’s consider the practical applications of mind clones. Because the fact is, even without these entities being sentient, they still possess remarkable marketplace utility.
A key figure in this field is Hiroshi Ishiguro. Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, the Japanese engineer has invented many synthetic robots of himself over the years, some of which are quite lifelike. According to the Irish Sun, he also programmed his AI twin using his own writings and media interviews. “Ishiguro revealed he used AI to input work from ten books he wrote and nearly all of his media interviews … the professor said: ‘Originally, I was using this robot for giving lectures when I was busy. But now, after the lectures, this Geminoid HI-6 can answer the questions given by an audience.’”
Ishiguro is not alone in this space. None other than the holistic health advocate Deepak Chopra digitally cloned himself in a similar fashion, training his twin based on his own writings and other data. Chopra’s digital counterpart is so proficient it can take Zoom calls, enabling the human version to be more productive with his limited time, according to the New York Post. The publication quoted co-founder and CEO Dara Ladjevardian of Delphi, the company that’s pioneering such intellectual cloning. “Coaches or experts whose time is usually very expensive can now allow infinitely many people to learn from them in a personalized way, at a much lower cost (or for free).”
A visit to Delphi’s site presents an intriguing value proposition on its homepage: “The platform to replicate your mind.” Pricing plans start as low as $29, granting users a “hosted personal clone link.” Intriguing as that sounds, there’s another offering termed “Immortal” that offers “Enterprise-grade digital presence with complete brand protection.”
Companies like Delphi are helping the mind clone concept go mainstream. Along these lines, Zoom founder Eric Yuan recently suggested you’ll soon be able to clone yourself to attend many Zoom calls simultaneously.
And Hollywood has actively been ‘resurrecting’ deceased actors like James Dean through AI. As BBC explains, “The digital cloning of Dean also represents a significant shift in what is possible. Not only will his AI avatar be able to play a flat-screen role in Back to Eden and a series of subsequent films, but also to engage with audiences in interactive platforms including augmented reality, virtual reality, and gaming.”
Much like a Seinfeld episode, there are many layers and complexity behind the surface of such cloning technology. For instance, we may well ask what legal recourse shall exist for future flesh and blood actors who don’t want to reappear in movies after they have passed on? Also, what can the estates of deceased actors do to protect their loved ones from being forced to reappear in projects they never agreed to participate in?
These are critical ethical and legal questions that warrant further discussion. For now, to understand where we are headed, I want to paint a future scenario for you. You are weeks away from launching your new product.
Unfortunately, you’re stuck. For the life of you, you cannot think of how to effectively market your company or your new offering. That’s when you remember the power of mind clones. You hop on your personalized AI platform trained on intellectual giants of the past. Within seconds you have access to Thomas Edison’s genius for invention, Steve Jobs’ marketing prowess, and David Mackenzie Ogilvy’s advertising mind.
For the next hour you consult all these greats, bouncing ideas off your new thought partners like some exquisite mental tennis match. With so much intellectual heft behind you there’s no way you can possibly lose.
Is this the future of business? My AI clone already knows the answer.
