Reid Hoffman has cloned himself — or at least created a digital doppelganger powered by AI. The Linked and Inflection co-founder unveiled “Reid AI” last month, an artificial intelligence model trained on over 20 years of his writings, speeches and interviews.
The realistic video avatar can engage in seamless back-and-forth conversation, answering queries from Hoffman’s digitized mindset.
“We used off the shelf technologies. Video from D-ID and a special bot trained on 20 years of my writings,” Hoffman explained of the process in a recent interview.
While the demo showcased AI’s mind-bending potential, it also hinted at a future minefield of deepfake disinformation.
“If I could wave a wand this year and not have anyone able to generate video, not having uncertainty including people claiming deepfakes when they’re not at part of this,” said Hoffman about his concerns.
However, he remains optimistic that technology can certify truth.
“It is possible and a technological solution that creates what is the real provenance of this?” he asked. “Ensuring Reid is really here talking with ‘Squawk Box,’ and there’s a certificate that asserts we trust that certificate.”
Looking ahead, Hoffman sees an “AI arms race” disrupting every industry.
“Every single thing that uses a computational item, and it’s not just your phone or computer, but also like your speakers and your cars and everything else, everything is going to get massively more [AI-driven],” he stated.
As AI transcends pattern recognition to general intelligence, Hoffman aims to steer it responsibly: “We need to figure out how to steer it and part of why I wanted to do it.”
Featured image: Credit: U.S. Secretary of Defense, Wikipedia
