AI clones of real people are here, and Cyborg Psychology head Pat Pataranutaporn says the risk is identity itself becoming programmable.

By Nick Kwek

AI clones are becoming more common, but the early-stage technology is not without risks. From rogue clones to workplace doppelgangers, here's what you need to know.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I met my first life-sized AI clone. Standing before me was tech founder David Nussbaum, an affable looking middle-aged man with dark, side-swept hair, square black glasses and salt-and-pepper stubble. Next to him, stood a digital double bearing all of the same features. 

Nussbaum is the founder and executive chairman of Proto Hologram, a company which builds interactive, AI-powered holographic projections which are popping up in doctors' offices, classrooms and retailers.   

On a tour of Nussbaum's studio, we came face-to-face with an interactive wall featuring well-known popstars and actors waving and grinning alongside Nussbaum's virtual doppelganger. 

Nussbaum's clone blinked back at me from behind a pane of plexiglass, "seeing" me via the Proto device's in-built camera. "There are two people standing inside what looks like a creative workspace," it intoned in a slightly robotic version of Nussbaum's voice, when asked to describe what it saw.

"AI Clones can influence how people think, feel and make decisions," says assistant professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab, Pat Pataranutaporn. AI clones "can wear the identity of someone we already know and trust. It is the risk of identity itself becoming programmable."