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April 9, 2025 12 mins

Ever wondered what would happen if your digital clone took over your podcast? In this fascinating episode of the TSG Podcast, hosts Adam and Michelle reveal the results of their six-episode experiment using AI clones instead of appearing on camera themselves.

The couple shares surprising metrics showing their AI clones actually outperformed their human versions in view counts—though with lower retention rates. They take you behind the scenes of creating realistic AI doubles, including the technical challenges, security measures, and ethical considerations that emerged during their experiment.

From practical applications in business to philosophical questions about competing with your own digital creation, this episode explores the cutting edge of content creation technology. Join Adam and Michelle as they announce their next challenge: can the human hosts beat their own AI clones in audience engagement?

Follow the TSG Podcast for this unprecedented technological showdown!

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been using an AI clone for our last six
podcast episodes.
Here's what happened.
Joining me in the studio todayfor our TSG podcast is not only
my brilliant, but the sexiestwife on planet Earth, Michelle.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
She knows far more than I do about what it takes to
get these clones AI clonesprogrammed.
We were kind of laughing theother day talking about this
episode, thinking what we wentthrough when we very first
started and even theadvancements in the technology
we witnessed from just a fewmonths ago.
There was something about ascene where I was like me and
then I turned a different colorand then a giant lion or

(00:46):
something came through.
Anyway, it sounds ridiculous,but I'll let Michelle explain a
little bit more about what ittakes to set up an AI clone.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah.
So we had this idea to go aheadand try using clones and see
really how that would work withour podcast, just really as an
experiment, more than anything,our podcast just really as an
experiment, more than anything.
So we found some software thatwe used and set up the clone for
the video and then also for thevoice.
We cloned the voice and thenput together a podcast and

(01:14):
started testing to see reallyhow it would perform.
Took quite a few cuts to get in.
The first few that we made didnot work well at all.
So we had to really learn howto take the, take the video in a
certain way to make the clonenot so weird looking, and really
it requires a lot of editing inthe backend too to really get

(01:35):
it to perform the way that itshould.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, a lot of people , I think, think you just come
up with this clone and deploy itand automatically that it works
, yeah, but that's not the case.
It takes a lot of time in frontof the camera and, like
Michelle said, some editing.
There's also a lot of securitymeasures behind it too that you
kind of have to learn tonavigate in order to make it all
work.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, I think a lot of times people worry about well
, if I can make a clone ofmyself, then anyone can do that.
And really with most of thesoftware that's legit, it and
really with most of the softwarethat's legit it's not going to
allow you to make a clone ofyour voice or make a clone of
your face.
Your video, without verifyingit's you.
So you upload the content foryour voice, then you have to

(02:15):
voice, verify that it's you.
And then same thing with thevideo.
You have to verify the videomatches your face.
So it's really hard to getaround doing that for someone
else because you really need tobe there in order to verify.
So that's the security we'retalking about.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
One thing to think of when you're making this clone
is the clone doesn't evolve.
So let's say you shot yourclone not too long after you've
had a recent facelift.
That swelling that comes fromthe surgery stays with your
clone until that entire processis redone and again you start
from scratch.
So lose weight, gain weight,have plastic surgery, whatever

(02:50):
it is.
Understand that each time youhave a big change to yourself
that it has to be updated.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, and you'll see that in our content.
Adam did have a facelift backin October.
So we have some clones thathave him having a chubbier face
and just because there's aswelling, so it's taken, we're
going to be having to create newclones as his look changes so
it stays up to date.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So you'll see, if you look back at our old content
you'll be able to see that, andI think there needs to be a
policy about clones too, becauseyou know, when you meet
somebody in real life, if youmet them like on Facebook or
through LinkedIn and they usesome 20 year old photograph and
you hardly recognize them inperson.
I think we should consider thatthere should even be some kind
of ethical boundary over how oldyour clone can be.

(03:31):
If you made your clone whenyou're 25, 20 years from now,
when you're 45, definitelyshould read up on the clone.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, absolutely.
And the funny thing too aboutlike clones and I think that
there is a really good use tothem and we'll get to like how
the clone actually performed,but I think there's a really
good use case for using clones.
Maybe not all the time withcontent, maybe it does work, but
even if, like if you're tryingto make training videos or
safety videos or within yourcompany for your team, it saves

(04:00):
so much time because it's soeasy.
Once you have the clone, youjust put in the text and it's
basically done.
So it really saves a lot oftime that you don't have to
spend in the studio recordingand so say you have a facelift
or you're sick or you havesomething else comes up where
you can't get into the studio torecord.
You can always create contentwith a clone or a video with a

(04:21):
clone, and anyone can do thatfor you.
We have our team that does thatfor us.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Once it's set up, it's that easy.
You've worked with a particularlarge language model long
enough.
It learns your tone, it learnsthe color of your voice.
It also can help generatescript that represents you,
which you load immediately intothe clone, which allows you to
make content, safety videos,instructional videos, etc.
In a pretty short period oftime.
On one hand, that's exciting,thank you, as it's virtually

(04:52):
sterilized or scrubbed throughthe process.
So what you give up in exchangefor convenience is a degree of
the human element, the humanconnection.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Even the human mistakes that come from real
podcasts, like, by the way, thisone today is yeah, and you'll
see that if you look back at ourolder content, we don't have
all of it marked that it's an AIclone.
A couple of them do say withinthe description that this is
Adam's clone, but our clone wasreally so good that Adam's mom

(05:23):
and dad saw the video and theythought it was him.
So when you really know him andthen when you watch the video,
you can really and especially ifyou're aware you can start
seeing mannerisms and littletics that aren't really normal
for a human.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
They're not normal.
Yeah, you don't want to learnany habits from your clone?

Speaker 2 (05:40):
No, and it'll repeat over and over, so you'll see
those things if you really payattention.
The thing is we're so busynormally when we're watching a
video we don't really noticethose little things, so it's
easy.
If you can create a clone, alot of people aren't going to
notice right away.
They might notice something's alittle weird about it, but
probably will be too busy toreally think too much about it.
And we've had people that, evenlike within the comments, say

(06:03):
something like you know, this isAI, which it is.
And then we've had people thathave made wonderful comments
that don't know that it's aclone.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
My favorite is the one where I'm I believe the
gentleman referred to me as apiece of garbage, human being,
so they're not all positive.
A huge, huge difference in ourresponses out there Everything
from positive to human garbage,I think is how I was referred to
.
So, anyway, welcome the haters,like anybody else.
It's all good attention andit's all good to get this
technology out, help communicateand spread the availability of

(06:35):
your clone and all the differentuses that it can be.
Just don't overestimate thepower of the human element.
Yeah, however, as we said atthe beginning of this video,
what actually happened?
So our content, honestly, hasbeen all over the place.
We're learning how to do this.
Michelle's never done it before.
I've never done it before.

(06:56):
This whole thing is one bigexperiment, which is what makes
it an amazing adventure.
However, in lieu of theexisting circumstance that we
were in our clones, my cloneactually far outperformed myself

(07:16):
in a podcast.
I'm not exactly sure how tofeel about that just yet, but it
gets the mind wondering what isthe future.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, no, it's been really interesting to look at
the data and the analytics onthe podcast and really try to
determine how is it doing andwhat's cool about it is.
You really have to dive deepinto the analysis to really
understand.
Why are we getting more views?
So the truth is is, yeah, theclone podcasts have gotten more

(07:42):
views, which is incredible,right, so now we can make.
So.
First thought is now we canmake a ton of content.
Right, we don't have to sit inthe studio all the time and we
get lots of views.
Well, except for they get a lotof times the podcast will get a
lot of views, but people don'tstick around long, and so that
could be because they watch itand they figure out it's a clone
or something feels a little offabout it.

(08:03):
So that's the downside, andwe're still learning, we're
still experimenting with thisbecause we want to do this.
So you don't have to, so we canlearn and make all the mistakes
and then share that informationwith you as we learn.
So you know what not to do.
So you get to go out there andsee all the stuff that we've
done.
That's been terrible, thathasn't worked right, and you

(08:26):
don't have to make the samemistakes we do, because we're
going to be sharing all thatwith you.
So, although the clones haveperformed better as far as
getting more views, we areseeing a drop in people sticking
around to watch the entirepodcast.
So that's something we have toconsider when we're.
It's not always just about theviewers and about how many views
we get, as if people want toreally stick around and watch it

(08:47):
.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
So what do you do when your clone outperforms your
real self on the internet?
What do we do?

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, first we look at the metrics and try to
understand why.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Of course, the numbers never lie right.
We have to follow thatourselves.
But at some point the creativeelement comes to the forefront
and you have to decide.
Are you going to let the clonerun this thing, which I have an
objection to or do we need toget involved, interject the
human element and challengeourselves to do better than our
clones?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, no, I think that that's the trick is.
I think creating content isabout connection right, and it's
about connecting with youraudience, and so, even though
our clones may get some viewsright, that's it's not
connecting with the people thatwe really want to connect with.
So that's why we're going to bechallenging ourselves to create
more content, to create bettercontent, and you'll see a whole

(09:41):
lot of different content comeout, because we're also
practicing, because we're alsonot good at this.
We're still learning, but wewant to get better, so we can
see, then, which does do better.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Guy makes clone, or actually guy makes podcast, then
guy makes clone who doespodcasts?
And then Guy has to figure outhow to up himself up his game.
Do better at making podcastshimself to rival his own
creation, his clone.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So you want to start like a competition.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, I was going to call it a battle royale for the
future of our podcast here atTSG.
Who's going to do it better?
Michelle and I, which wehaven't exercised Michelle's
clone yet.
It's far too sexy to release onthe internet.
I think that's been the problem, but we'll find one that I
think can work.
But in the meantime, I think weneed to get together and figure
out exactly how to beat ourclone at this game.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
So that's the next thing.
That's the next thing.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's the next thing .

Speaker 2 (10:40):
The competition between our human selves and our
clone selves.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Well, I see it a little bit more philosophically
than that.
It's a competition betweenourselves and our creation.
So our creation has the backingof immense amounts of hardware
and technology.
What it lacks is the humanelement.
What you and I have isvirtually no experience, but we
have a longing and an intentionto create content that connects

(11:10):
with people.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
So that's the ground and we're going to run these
podcasts with Michelle and Itogether, or maybe apart, over
the next couple of weeks, butit'll be us in the flesh either
way, one or both, and we'll putthe metrics together and then
we'll throw in a couple clonevideos as we go through it, a
clone podcast, and do an overallcomparison, maybe in another
four or five weeks.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, see how it goes .

Speaker 1 (11:33):
We invite you to come along with us Interesting to
see if we can out-compete ourown creation, and I challenge
you to find ways to do that inyour own life, whether you're
pursuing business, somethingcreative, doing some kind of
social impact work, whatever itis, think about that.
Have we ever had technology inhistory where we ourselves can

(11:53):
create it, have it perform sowell that it actually challenges
us to perform better?
That's a very interesting thing, and I'm not so sure that's
happened much in history, butit's happening now.
Tune in for more TSG as we moveforward and join us on this
journey as we figure out how toout-compete and out-perform our

(12:17):
own creation.
In the meantime, don't beafraid to visit the TSG website
for classes on how you can learnto do this with AI and other
applicable skills as we allenter this new era.
So don't be afraid either, tolike, share, comment and
subscribe.
Thank you for joining us.
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