[BONUS + VIDEO] Reid interviews Reid AI, his AI avatar

Reid recently created an AI version of himself—REID AI—and recorded a video Q&A to see how this digital twin might challenge him in new ways. Watch the full clip here: https://youtu.be/rgD2gmwCS10 This is Reid’s latest AI experiment, following the book he co-wrote with GPT-4 (Impromptu), the podcast he co-hosted with ChatGPT (Fireside Chatbots), and, of course, Possible, in which we use AI tools like Pi and GPT-4 to prompt guests and enrich conversations. Possible returns next week, but in the meantime, we thought you might like to watch and learn more about Reid’s latest experiment with AI tools. Watch the full clip: https://youtu.be/rgD2gmwCS10 The backstory on making REID AI in Reid’s newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/long-reids-6953437305957232640/ Lastly, the video avatar is generated by Hour One, and its voice was created by 11ElevenLabs. Hour One - https://app.hourone.ai/home 11ElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.io/ REID AI’s persona—the way that it formulates responses—is generated from a custom chatbot built on GPT-4 that was trained on Reid’s books, speeches, podcasts and other content that Reid has produced over the last few decades. This video is fully endorsed by Reid Hoffman.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Aria Finger?

  Hey, everyone. We're back next week with season three of Possible. As a fun warm-up, Reid just made a video Q&A with his AI avatar. It was wild to see two Reids interview each other. Check out the full clip in the show notes, or you can keep listening for a short preview here.

• 0:21Reid Hoffman?

  Why would I want to be interviewed by a digital version of myself? Well, great question. Reid AI, introduce yourself to everyone. Hello, everyone. I'm thrilled to be here today. I'm an AI-generated version of Reid Hoffman, his digital twin. What's coming out of my mouth is based on 20 years of Reid talking and making content. So first, I'm going to challenge Reid AI with some questions to see what it can do and how good its content is in mirroring what I might say. Then the tables will turn, and I will challenge you with some questions about AI and tech. Of course, there's a second question, whether or not I'll answer. Well, OK. Challenge accepted.

• 1:00Aria Finger?

  Here's a set of questions that the real Reid asked.

• 1:05Reid Hoffman?

  So what role should governments play in regulating AI? What about my LinkedIn page? Could you give me some advice on that? Let's take a real piece of work from me, blitzscaling. I wrote a 336-page book. And how do you explain it as Jerry would explain it in Seinfeld?

• 1:23Aria Finger?

  And here are some of the questions that Reid's AI avatar asked him.

• 1:27Reid Hoffman?

  So why did you want to use an AI host? Why not just do the talking yourself? What are your thoughts on the ethical risks of AI digital twins, including privacy and consent? How do you reconcile this speedy progress with the real fear many have about their jobs vanishing? And what would you say to them?

• 1:47Aria Finger?

  And here's Reid's reflection on his experience.

• 1:50Reid Hoffman?

  It's almost like when someone watches a video of themselves and they learn things about how to communicate better for it, but actually much broader. This new world of AI avatars will certainly make a lot of people uncomfortable. And by the way, will certainly have some footfalls and errors. But again, always starting with the what might we be able to make?

• 2:13Reid Hoffman?

  And how do we shape it and not just try to say, "Let's keep the past and not go into the future."

• 2:19Aria Finger?

  If you want to compare and contrast Reed and his AI avatar as they interview each other, click the link in the show notes.