Delphi, a startup that recently raised 16 million from funders including Anthropic and actor/director Olivia Wilde's venture capital firm, Proximity Ventures, helps famous people create replicas that can speak with their fans in both chat and voice calls. It feels like MasterClass--the platform for instructional seminars led by celebrities--vaulted into the AI age. On its website, Delphi writes that modern leaders "possess potentially life-altering knowledge and wisdom, but their time is limited and access is constrained." It has a library of official clones created by famous figures that you can speak with. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, told me, "I'm here to cut the crap and help you get stronger and happier," before informing me cheerily that I've now been signed up to receive the Arnold's Pump Club newsletter.

Generative AI is already looking like the major tech trend of 2023. The ability to generate fresh content via algorithms has been thrust into the public consciousness by the likes of ChatGPT, a chatbot-style technology trained on large language models (LLMs) capable of producing essays, poems, lyrics, news articles and even computer programs. Then there's DALL-E, from the same Microsoft-backed OpenAI that spawned ChatGPT, which serves a similar purpose but for visual creations instead. While some have argued that ChatGPT signals AI's arrival into the mainstream, the truth of the matter is that we're just at the start of a new era of AI-powered applications that will transform just about every facet of industry, from consumer search and stock photography to real estate and content marketing. It's against that backdrop that a fledgling startup called Tavus is looking to make its mark by enabling companies to create "unique" videos tailored to a specific individual, but based entirely on a single initial recording.