Attack of the Clones
Why building an AI digital double is going to be easier than ever.
I admit it. I cloned myself. Using a variety of AI tools, I created a digital version of myself that looks, sounds, and writes like me. Sort of. It's less of a carbon copy and more of a mimeograph. Rough around the edges with fuzzy details, but still mostly recognizable.
It started as a mental exercise then turned into a challenge. Could I supercharge some of my content production workflow with AI? And trust me, as someone who started writing and editing professionally at newspapers and magazines in the pre-digital era (aka, the 1990s), it pains me to type phrases like "content production workflow" with a straight face.
Read more: How I Turned Myself into an AI Video Clone for Under $50
The first few times I looked into creating a reasonable AI video clone a year or so ago, it seemed too complex, too expensive, and too janky to make sense. Earlier this year, though, I went back and explored the options and came up with a combination of tools that worked.
The cost to initially set up my digital double was low -- under $50. That inspired my Micro Center News feature on "How I Turned Myself into an AI Video Clone for Under $50." Of course, nearly everything is subscription-based these days, so that's for one month's worth of these tools. If you want to keep using them, it's an ongoing commitment.
In my case, I used an online AI app called HeyGen for the video portion of my clone and another AI app called Eleven Labs for the voice. Late in the process, I added a custom GPT I've been tinkering with, trained on years of my writing, to be able to have a Q&A session with myself, which you can see in the video below.
To break down the costs: the HeyGen subscription is $29/month, which includes a limited number of virtual avatars but an unlimited number of five-minute clips you can render and export. I initially subscribed to Eleven Labs for $5/month. Still, I had to jump up to the next level, at $11/month, because I quickly ran through my 30 minutes of monthly voice output when I was testing and retesting different text readbacks to get a realistic flow. HeyGen includes voice cloning as well, but I just didn't love it.
This takes me back to 2023 at CNET, when some of the editorial and video staff, myself included, gathered in a small conference room to listen to someone talk about a company that offered to create virtual clones of us -- to make video production easier. Of course, everyone in the room denounced the idea and swore we’d never allow it.
I joined the chorus, saying of course not, I would never allow a company to clone my face and voice. "There is, however," I added, "a number."
By this, I meant that no matter the objections, there's a price that one might conceivably allow for such a thing. I was kidding at the time, but I thought back to that moment as I willingly cloned myself.
So, Now that I've created this proof-of-concept AI clone, what can I actually use it for? I primarily wrote the Micro Center News article to demystify the concept for readers and pull back the curtain on some of the passes-for-magic AI tricks we see. The few times I've used it for professional purposes, I have been using it to create video versions of some of my other articles.
For example, I'll edit my article text to sound better when read out loud, feed it to the clone, and put him in the bottom corner of the video, narrating over b-roll. The results were decent, but with editing (usually in CapCut), it took longer than recording myself doing a voiceover or talking head video. Perhaps there are changes to my workflow that will make it faster and easier. The one real advantage is that I can always look camera-ready with good lighting. Shooting video in a NYC apartment is always challenging, with changing lighting conditions, noise from outside (or inside), or even just having time to set up a camera and mic.
I remain agnostic on the long-term value of AI clones for most people. But especially as writers/reporters/content creators, it's important not to put our heads in the sand and pretend this technology isn't happening -- and more importantly -- isn't happening for less than the cost of a coffee a day.
Note: Cover art is from the 1973 cult film, The Clones.
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This is cool! I tried it too for voiceovers for sponsored content, but so far it’s quicker to do it IRL
Really cool stuff, Dan! Well done!