In the months leading up to the pandemic, 73 year old best-selling author Deepak Chopra uploaded his "consciousness" to the AI Foundation to ensure he would be around to chat with future generations. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and venture capitalist Cyan Bannister did the same. Now they see a future filled with personalized AI for all. In an interview with Chopra, the meditation guru told me his goal is to help a billion people with his AI. Stone messaged that he is training his AI to tell jokes as it has been speaking at conferences for him, and Bannister lets her AI vet founders' pitches.

In the months leading up to the pandemic, 73 year old best-selling author Deepak Chopra uploaded his "consciousness" to the AI Foundation to ensure he would be around to chat with future generations. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and venture capitalist Cyan Bannister did the same. Now they see a future filled with personalized AI for all. In an interview with Chopra, he told me his goal is to help a billion people with his AI. Stone messaged he's been sending his AI to conferences and training it to tell jokes, and Bannister has been letting her AI vet founders' pitches.

The AI Foundation, which ambitiously hopes to develop "ethical," trainable AI agents to complete tasks, today closed a $17 million financing round. A spokesperson said the proceeds will be used to scale the company's platform that allows people to create personas mirroring their own. As the pandemic makes virtual meetups a regular occurrence, the concept of personal AI -- AI that's tailored around one's life or that replicates personalities -- is rising to the fore. Startups creating virtual beings, or artificial people powered by AI, have raised more than $320 million in venture capital to date. As my colleague Dean Takahashi points out, these beings are a kind of precursor for the Metaverse -- the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.

A couple years ago I took part in a marketing video where I was recorded answering questions about my career path, interests, and goals. The next day, the videographer offered to show me the footage, so I took him up on it. As I watched myself, I became dismayed. My eyes darted from left to right instead of looking into the camera. And my head did this weird, reflexive sort of mini-nod whenever I said something I felt strongly about.

By Dec 22, 2019 0 A couple years ago I took part in a marketing video where I was recorded answering questions about my career path, interests, and goals. The next day, the videographer offered to show me the footage, so I took him up on it. As I watched myself, I became dismayed. My eyes darted from left to right instead of looking into the camera. And my head did this weird, reflexive sort of mini-nod whenever I said something I felt strongly about.

A couple years ago I took part in a marketing video where I was recorded answering questions about my career path, interests, and goals. The next day, the videographer offered to show me the footage, so I took him up on it. As I watched myself, I became dismayed. My eyes darted from left to right instead of looking into the camera. And my head did this weird, reflexive sort of mini-nod whenever I said something I felt strongly about.

I'm sitting down on a sofa, talking to what looks like a Facetime with Deepak Chopra on a phone. It's an animated, sometimes realistic, talking head. He asks me how I feel. I end up discussing work stress. For a few minutes, I'm having a little session with a Deepak that doesn't exist. A few weeks later, I'm talking to actual Deepak Chopra on the phone about what I experienced.