Explainer · June 10, 2026
What is an AI clone?
An AI clone is an AI model of a specific, named person, built from their own materials and a structured interview, that answers the way they would: their judgment, their voice, their frameworks. Where a chatbot gives you an anonymous average, a clone gives you one real expert, at scale.
Clone vs chatbot vs avatar vs digital twin
The terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different things:
- Chatbot: answers from general training or a knowledge base. No specific person behind it, no accountability.
- AI avatar: reproduces how someone looks and sounds on video. It is a face and a voice, not judgment.
- Digital twin: usually a model of a thing (a machine, a system) or of behavior for simulation.
- AI clone: a model of a named person's judgment and expertise, built to answer and decide the way they would. It can wear an avatar's face and voice, but the clone is the thinking underneath.
How an AI clone is built
The hard part is capturing the parts of expertise people cannot easily write down: the taste, the conviction without data, the pattern-matching from years of doing the work. On Aiva that happens in four steps:
- Upload your materials: writing, talks, docs, anything that carries how you think.
- Interview: a guided session that draws out the tacit judgment your materials do not state outright.
- Calibrate: benchmark the clone against real questions and correct it until it sounds like you.
- Deploy: use it in your own tools over MCP, and list it on the marketplace when that opens.
Where you actually use a clone
Built once, a clone runs across every surface: your own tools (over MCP), the apps developers build on the platform (creator clones, companion hubs, in-game characters), and the Aiva marketplace, where someone can hire a named expert by the question rather than the hour.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI clone?
An AI clone is an AI model of a specific, named person, built from that person's own materials and a structured interview, that answers questions the way they would: their judgment, their voice, their frameworks. Unlike a generic assistant, a clone is accountable to a real individual.
How is an AI clone different from a chatbot?
A chatbot answers from general training or a company knowledge base, with no specific person behind it. An AI clone is tied to one named expert and reproduces how that person actually thinks and decides, so the answer carries their judgment and accountability, not an anonymous average.
Is an AI clone the same as an AI avatar or digital twin?
No. An AI avatar reproduces how someone looks and sounds on video. A digital twin usually models a thing (a machine or system) or a person’s behavior for simulation. An AI clone models a person’s judgment and expertise for conversation and decisions. A clone can use an avatar for its face and voice, but the clone is the thinking underneath.
How do you make an AI clone of yourself?
On Aiva you build one in an afternoon: upload your materials (writing, talks, docs), sit a guided interview that captures the tacit parts of your expertise, calibrate it against benchmark questions, then deploy it to your own tools over MCP and, when it launches, the marketplace.
What can an AI clone be used for?
Answering your audience or team in your voice at scale, giving named, accountable input on decisions, powering apps (creator clones, companions, in-game characters), and earning royalties when other people use it. One clone, built once, used across every surface it runs on.
Make a clone of your own expertise.
Build it in an afternoon, then use it everywhere. Free to build.
Create your clone