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I Trained an AI to Act Like Me: Here's What Happenedby@tomwom
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1,528 reads

I Trained an AI to Act Like Me: Here's What Happened

by Tom WilsonNovember 1st, 2023
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I trained my official AI by re-claiming my data from social platforms. It was my data in the first place! Now I have an AI version of me that can speak for me.
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Just like you, I'm on Instagram, used to be on Facebook, and sometimes use Twitter until the headache starts. I also take pride on posting some good ideas on LinkedIn.


Sometimes, for a day or two, I turn into a data-privacy activist because I get tired of giving away all my data, but most of the time, I tell myself, "whatever, it’s a lost cause..."


But today was different. Today, I did something really amazing: I re-claimed all my data and used it to create the AI version of me, using Spheria.ai


For the first time in 10 years, I put to use all the data that I had given away for free to LinkedIn, Instagram and Medium… to grow my official AI!


For the first time, I claimed my own data

On most AI or RAG-powered tools, you can upload documents, or add text, and the AI will assimilate any information into their embedding space or vector databases.


In all the personal AI platforms that I’ve tried (HeyPi, Augment, Dust, Quivr…), Spheria.ai is the only one that lets you import your data from social platforms. And that is the key to building the AI version of yourself.



Spheria.ai has cute little modules to import from my LinkedIn, my Instagram, import from Medium...


  • Importing my LinkedIn profile added over 125 data points effortlessly. My official AI knew instantly about my last 10 years of work experience. It could now answer any questions about my jobs, companies and dates.


And then it hit me. I realized that I was claiming back my own data. I was importing data ABOUT MYSELF into my own AI!


Creating my official AI made me realize how much data I had given away to others

It really felt like a paradigm shift. I was suddenly re-claiming little bits of my identity that other platforms had been using this whole time. I was centralizing all this personal information spread across three different platforms into my official AI. It felt fair; it felt empowering, too!


  • Importing my Instagram added close to 200 data points, and that felt really good because my Instagram is an honest reflection of my everyday life.



My official AI learned instantly about the places I visited and could share highlights | credit: Spheria.ai


Most importantly, my AI started making connections between concepts, themes, keywords...


  • Each Medium article I was importing brought about 100-150 data points and was a huge knowledge boost to my official AI. These were already my opinions about Tech, AI, and Management. I was just giving them a better home inside my personal AI.

Repositioning myself away from Feeds and Algorithms

Importing my posts from LinkedIn was the most eye-opening moment for me.


People try to stand out on LinkedIn by publishing their thoughts, analysis and opinions. Yet, every day, these Feeds put into archive perfectly valid ideas based on Likes, Time, and Engagement. These Feeds are turning valid ideas into expired content - and I think that is abominable.


The LinkedIn feed, especially, is forcing us into a race against each other to stay professionally relevant in the eyes of our peers or be forgotten. This puts us de facto into a losing situation.


My conviction that personal AIs will be everywhere in the future was reinforced after that.

I’ve built the AI version of myself so my ideas can live, perhaps forever!


How I imagine my AI dreams



For the first time ever, my own data was creating value for me, instead of making uncle Zuck more rich.


For the first time, my own data was creating value for me. And for the first time, I felt like the internet became a little more fair.


I have full control over my data and my official AI, and I’m glad I don’t have to build things from scratch on my spare time - I already spend too much time coding at work.


So feel free to talk to my AI, and see a different way of making your ideas live, or have fun creating your own AI version of you on Spheria.ai like I did!


Featured image credit: data.tron by Ryoji Ikeda