Thanks for calling United Airlines.

Um, I appreciate your help, but I would prefer to speak directly with the representative.

I'm having some issues with my flight booking that I think would be best resolved through a direct conversation.

That's me, on the phone recently.

Well, it's not really me. It's a clone of my voice, being fully controlled by an AI chatbot,

making a call using my phone number. I started playing around voice cloning six months ago,

just for fun. But pretty soon, I became consumed with a question. What would happen if I made

an artificial version of me and set it loose in the world?

Okay, fine. That was also a voice clone.

This is me, for real.

I promise I won't keep doing that.

I'm a journalist who's been writing about technology,

and it's sometimes dark underbelly, for a couple of decades.

You've no doubt heard about the latest debates around AI.

Will it make us hyperproductive or just take our jobs?

Will it be our trusty digital

assistant or our super intelligent overlord or just fill the world with endless made-up garbage?

Recently, I decided to answer these questions by immersing myself, replicating myself, actually,

in the form of cloned voice agents, replacing myself before someone else could replace me.

Hello.

Hi, Nikhil. Great to be chatting with you today. Do you have any questions about the podcast

before we dive in? Oh, that's really funny. I'm glad you think so. My voice agents talk to sources, to my friends and family, to scammers and spammers, and

...