How To Clone Yourself With A Custom GPT (And Zero Coding!)

Author(s): Alden Do Rosario

Originally published on Towards AI.

At a recent in-person AI conference in Boston, I got a strange request from a fellow attendee.

Hey, can I build a clone of this person I know with all her public information?

At first, I was intrigued. And then a few days later, I got this second email from someone I’ve known for many years.

I’m working with a former Harvard professor on a project. We are essentially looking to turn all of his previous works, talks, and dissertations and turn them into a chatbot where you can ask the professor any question.

Ok — that’s it — so what better way than to clone myself as a test.

So without further ado, let’s do it!

Why Clone Yourself?

There are some compelling reasons to do this — besides vanity, of course.

Preserve Knowledge

By building an AI clone of yourself, you are essentially preserving your knowledge, perspectives, and experiences in a way that is accessible and interactive.

This can be incredibly useful for people looking to tap into your expertise, even when you’re not directly available.

It’s like leaving a cognitive legacy that can be referred to at any time.

Scalable Mentoring and Communication

If you’re a person of influence, a leader, or an expert in your field, chances are there are many people who want to learn from you or seek your advice.

The problem is: You tend to go to sleep sometimes (yeah — it’s true — LOL!)

An AI clone of yourself allows for your guidance to be shared on a larger scale, without the limitations of your personal time and energy.

It can provide mentorship, offer advice, or engage in discussions based on your ideas and philosophies.

Self-reflection and Growth

The process of building an AI clone of oneself can be an exercise in self-discovery and reflection. It forces you to distill your thoughts, ideas, and knowledge into a format that can be understood by an AI model.

This not only helps to clarify your own understanding of what you know and believe but also provides you an opportunity to reevaluate and potentially grow from this introspection.

Heck — you might even discover some things about yourself that Google knows about you.

Show Off!

Ok — this one might be reaching too far — but some people like to show off ..

I have to confess: One of my motivations to do this was to show off my cricket stats — LOL ..

But I’m sure a lot of people have better achievements than me and exposing their knowledge and vast information sources might make sense (specially in academia where publishing papers is important!) — so making your life’s work easily accessible has real value (beyond just vanity!)

But Before You Do ..

While some might think that this is a daunting task, you can do this easily now with no-code custom GPT building platforms. But do check some things first:

No hallucinations

Make sure whatever tool you use does not hallucinate — that is: make up facts! Let’s read that again: Without making up facts. This is important because you don’t want your clone saying things outside of your knowledge base.

Multi-source data integration

Your data is probably splattered across a hundred places. From various web resources, to PDFs, to Youtube, to social media, the list goes on.

Make sure whatever platform you choose has built myriad tools to help you ingest your data from various sources. When cloning yourself, this is the hardest part — because you want to ingest your public data from various sources like websites, social media, YouTube videos, PDFs, Google results, etc.

So you need a platform that has taken care of this hard part for you.

Privacy & Security

For something as sensitive as this, you want a business-grade platform that is privacy-preserving and secure.

While some of your data might already be public, you want a privacy-preserving platform to review the queries being asked of your chatbot and gather intelligence from them.

In other words, You need to see the chat logs.

Case Study

Dr. Michael Levin from Tufts University sought to enhance the accessibility and interactivity of his lab’s in-depth knowledge by providing students, researchers, and the curious public with a platform where they could engage directly with his lab’s extensive research on developmental biophysics, computer science, and cognitive science.

He hoped to create a tool, LevinBot, that could not only offer detailed, accurate answers to complex scientific queries, but also embody the aesthetic and intellectual essence of the Levin Lab.

LevinBot transformed the Levin Lab’s online presence. Users across the globe can now interact with LevinBot 24/7, asking complex scientific questions and receiving well-sourced, accurate answers in over 90 languages.

Significantly augmenting the standard FAQs section of their website, LevinBot provides a more dynamic and conversational user experience. Instead of poring over the source material for hours, users can get answers to their most pressing scientific questions in just a few seconds.

Step-By-Step Guide

Now this is the amazing part — you probably started reading this blog post thinking that something like this would take days — no, it can be done in minutes.

Step 1: Accumulate your data sources

The first thing is to decide what you want to ingest. For example, I decided to use myself as a guinea pig and create a consolidated chatbot with all the publicly available information about me. Here are the data sources I added:

• List of Google search results that show up for my name.
• Various public documents (like my resume)
• Deep search results for my name (from Facebook, Twitter, Cricinfo, etc)
• Youtube videos

One piece of advice: Please decide what data you want ingested and whether you want it kept private or public. This part is important. If you plan on making your chatbot public, make sure you ingest only public data.

Another thing to consider: Some of the most important data might be hidden behind paywalls. So you might need to do “Save As” before ingesting it into the bot (For example: I’m a little bummed that my cricket stats could not be ingested by the bot because they are hidden behind a login paywall — Arrrghhhhh!)

Ninja Move: If your no-code platform supports RSS feeds, you can even dynamically ingest information as it happens (say from a News feed!). Just imagine the possibilities of that.

Step 2: Add the sources

Now that you have nice documents and sitemaps representing each source or a list of documents/files, you add them to your chatbot.

Do note: you don’t need any coding experience for this. Just use the “Add Sitemap” or the “Add Files” button and let it rip.

Step 3: Start talking!

Within minutes, you can then start talking to the chatbot. That’s it. You are done!

Try some queries that you would anticipate your intended audience to ask. Set some example prompts (to lead users!)

You can then decide how you want to deploy your chatbot. Most people put it on their website, let people chat with it using Livechat or even integrate it into your systems using an API.

Ninja Tip: Some people have requested me to build a chatbot for them that will reply to their emails in their tone and style. Ouch!

Live Demo

You can see the live demo hosted on this page: https://adorosario.github.io/AldenBot/

Ninja Tip: You could even register a new website and embed the chatbot on it — just imagine the possibilities of that.

FAQ

Q: Can I really clone myself using ChatGPT?

A: Yes, with the new ChatGPT GPT builder, you can upload your documents and create a clone of yourself and even get it to talk and behave like you.

One shortfall is: The ChatGPT GPT builder only supports uploading 20 files. And does not support web-based assets like webpages or websites. So if you need those, you will need to use another commercial no-code builder platform. (See the example above)

Q: Will the chatbot truly represent me?

A: While the AI chatbot will be able to emulate your style of communication and share knowledge based on the data it has been trained on, it’s important to remember that it is still an AI and not an exact replica of you. It doesn’t have your memories or personal experiences unless they’re shared in the data it was trained on.

Q: Is my data secure during this process?

A: Actually — NO. So it is best that you use only public data. In other words: Only documents and data that is already publicly available — and possibly already indexed by Google.

The GPT Store is NOT for business use. Here is why ..

Unfortunately, when it comes to business use, this consumer option is lacking some key requirements that every business…

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In fact, ChatGPT is so unsafe that users can simply download all your files just by giving it some instructions.

Q: Can I choose what information the AI clone knows?

A: Yes, the AI clone will only know what information it has been trained on. This allows you to control the scope of its knowledge and capabilities.

Q: How long does the process take?

A: Once you have accumulated your data sources, the process of creating the AI clone can take just a few minutes. The actual time can vary depending on the amount of the data.

Q: What types of data can I use to train my AI clone?

A: You can use a wide range of data sources, such as webpages, Google search results, PDFs, Word documents, social media posts, videos, podcasts, etc.

Depending on which no-code builder platform you use, the data integrations and formats will vary.

Q: Can I integrate the AI clone into my website or other platforms?

A: Yes, once created, you can choose to share your AI clone publicly, embed it on your website, or integrate it into your systems using an API. You can even use Zapier and create workflows based on the API, thus connecting it to other platforms and integrations.

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Most businesses had almost no interest in the GPT store, the way the store is designed. The only ones who care are…

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Point to note: If you are using ChatGPT’s GPT builder, you cannot embed it in your website or use workflows. Your users will need to visit chat.openai.com to talk to your clone.

Q: Can the AI clone answer new questions or only those based on the ingested data?

A: The AI clone will ONLY answer questions based on the data — without hallucinating. It will not “make up” answers or generate responses based on information it has not indexed. Make sure your preferred chatbot building platform has a good anti-hallucination feature activated.

Q: How does the AI clone know to respond in my style?

A: All GPT builders have “custom instructions” you can give that will imitate your tone, style and personality. A good option is to use a free tool to create your own custom instructions.

Conclusion

So, there we have it. We’ve just skimmed the surface of a whole new world of AI-powered possibilities. We’ve dipped our toes into the idea of cloning ourselves using AI. A strange concept? Maybe. Intriguing? Absolutely.

Think of it as creating a digital twin — a version of yourself (or your loved one!) that can engage with the world while you sleep, share your knowledge while you’re busy, and keep your ideas alive and accessible even when you’re not around.

In the end, it’s not just about using AI for self-cloning but about the impact we can create — for ourselves and others. As we continue to explore this new frontier, let’s always remember to use it responsibly, ethically, and for the betterment of all.

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Published via Towards AI