Clone

Wars
Launching a hyper-realistic digital avatar puts

Cincinnati writer/podcaster Helen Todd

squarely in the debate about human

creativity and artificial intelligence.

BY
MICHELE DAY
ILLUSTRATION BY
GLENN HARVEY
PAGE 55
 LEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELE
DD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • H

elen Todd posted some provocat ive

headlines on her social media chan-
nels this summer: “Not Deepfaked!”
“I Cloned Myself!” “Meet my Digital Twin!” They
read like the plot of a science fiction mov ie,
signaling a world where fantasy blurs w ith
reality and awe mixes with anxiety.

laborate with AI instead of fearing it. And

she grapples with the big “why” questions:
Why would someone want or need a digital
clone, beyond the novelty angle? And why
should we embrace the new technology?

BEFORE WE TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE,

In other words, the host of a Cincinnati-
based podcast about creativity and artificial
intelligence (AI) perfectly encapsulated the
rhetoric swirling around the latest devel-
opment in her career. Did you hear? Helen
Todd has a clone.
On Instagram, Todd the human heralded
the moment with a call for revelry: “Drum-
roll…meet my custom synthetic avatar:
Helen 2.ODD” followed by a celebratory
face emoji wearing a party hat and blowing a
horn. “Yes, you read that right. I’ve digitally
cloned myself, so now there are two of me:
the human Helen and my custom synthetic
avatar Helen 2.ODD.”
Host of the Creativity Squared digital
platform, Todd finds the idea of self-du-
plication intriguing. So, a few days after
the Instagram fanfare for Helen 2.ODD—
pronounced “two point odd”—I meet up
with her at her Finneytown home office
to discuss the genesis and implications of
her machine-generated twin and her writ-
ing and speaking on how creatives can col-
Todd takes me on a tour of her home on
Winton Road. She’s repurposed the 1910
building, once used as offices for doc-
tors and insurance agents. The previous
owner’s renovations carefully preserved
original features such as the hardwood
floors and exposed beams, and Todd has
decorated the walls with an eclectic array
of paintings, prints, and art photos. She
points out a series of canvas pieces repre-
senting the four seasons that were crafted
by her mother using a modern take on 12th
century marbling techniques.
Todd grew up in eastern Tennessee
without a television and doesn’t have one
in this house. But the equipment needed
for video and audio production—micro-
phones, ring lights, electric cables—is ev-
erywhere. “This is where the magic hap-
pens,” Todd says as she gestures toward
the green screen hanging on the dining
room wall. She hasn’t taken it down since
recording the video for the introduction
of Helen 2.ODD earlier. It’s been a little
hectic, she says.
We eventually settle in front of Todd’s
office computer to trace the timeline of her

PAGE 56
P H OTO G R A P H S C O U R T E SY C R E AT I V I T Y S Q U A R E D
HELENHELEN
2.ODDTODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD
LEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD • HELEN TODD • HELEN 2.ODD

synthetic avatar’s inception. Her face lights

up as she scrolls through her social media
channels, the place where she chronicles im-
portant life events. She points to a June Ins-
tagram photo of herself standing in front of
a green screen in a production studio.“There
will be two of me soon,” the post promises.
The photo was taken at the Burlington,
Vermont, studios of Render, a company
that specializes in hyper-realistic avatar
development. Engineers used 30 minutes
of video and 12 minutes of audio Todd
recorded that day to train artificial intel-
ligence applications to clone her appear-
ance and voice. A few weeks later, her Ren-
derMe program was delivered, providing
the means to convert words into videos of
herself without ever turning on a camera.
Helen Todd had been cloned.
She describes the feeling of embrac-
ing a disruptive technology in its infancy
as both exhilarating and familiar. At age
26, she launched a social media marketing
agency, Sociality Squared, in New York City.
It was 2010, “before social media was even
an industry,” she says.
Unveiling a digital clone in 2023 has re-
ignited the thrill. But it’s also caused her to
reflect on the unexpected directions new
technology can take. “I loved social media
at the time,” she says. “I still do, for better or
worse, given what it’s become.” She paus- THE REAL ME LOCAL WRITER/PODCASTER HELEN TODD WAS RECORDED AND FILMED (TOP) OVER THE SUMMER IN ORDER TO
PRODUCE A DIGITAL AVATAR. CAN YOU TELL WHICH OF THE IMAGES ABOVE IS HUMAN HELEN AND WHICH IS HELEN 2.ODD? TODD IS
es, searching for the right words. “I have a USING HER AVATAR EXPERIENCE TO BRING ATTENTION (OPPOSITE PAGE) TO HOW AI CAN IMPACT HUMAN CREATIVITY IN POSITIVE WAYS.

feeling going into AI that hopefully we’ve

learned something from the social media
experience.” Human Todd is an optimist.
Her career pivoted from social media
marketer to artificial intelligence explor-
er in October 2022. A friend who works
at OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT,
showed her a demo of the program. She fed
the AI app a rough scene from a miniseries
project she’d been mulling for a couple of
years, and it instantly produced a detailed
script, complete with dialogue and direc-
tor’s notes. “That moment captured my
imagination,” Todd recalls.
OpenAI released Chat GPT to the public
about a month later, and suddenly everyone
was imagining the possibilities of genera-
tive artificial intelligence. And worrying
about a future where machines could per-
form the roles of humans, eliminating jobs
and threatening creativity.
Todd, influenced by her mother’s artis-
tic background, was particularly intrigued
by the impact of AI tools. She quickly
decided to jump into the fray by creating
a podcast exploring the intersection of
art and artificial intelligence. From there,
things moved quickly. She bought the do-
main for Creativity Squared (creativity
squared.com) on Valentine’s Day 2023.
It wasn’t cheap, but Todd considered the
financial investment an indication of her
commitment. “I thought, OK, I’m doing it,”
she says. Within a month, she developed a
website landing page, a trailer, a YouTube
channel and an e-mail newsletter. The pod-
cast launched on April 20, and she’s put out
weekly episodes ever since.
A friend connected her to Jon Tota,
CEO and founder of Render, as a potential
guest for the show. Todd had only a general
awareness of cartoonish gaming avatars be-
fore meeting Tota, but she quickly saw the
potential of custom synthetic digital clones
and formed a partnership with the CEO.
Render would become a podcast sponsor,
and Todd would get a clone.
MAKING THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE
cloning process took several months,
though Todd began teasing her avatar’s ar-
rival on her podcast almost immediately.
She also frequently broached the subject in
personal encounters with friends, family,
acquaintances, and strangers. News of the
pending hyper-realistic avatar drew a broad
spectrum of responses—from “That’s so
cool!” and “I want one” to looks of horror
and disbelief. She remembers one conver-
sation with a couple at a gallery exhibition
featuring AI art. She told them about her
soon-to-be clone, and they stared at her,
mouths agape. “They were like, That’s ter-
rifying!” she says. C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 8 8

PAGE 57
CLONE WARS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57

more human-centered.” relationship between man and machines.

The most common uses for hyper- “Imperfections in speech are naturally hu-
Clone realistic avatars like Helen 2.ODD include man,” he says. “These avatars have to be

Wars personalized marketing, customer service,

and sales materials, as well as educational
taught imperfections.”
Too perfect or not, Helen 2.ODD drew
Launching a hyper-realistic digital avatar puts

Cincinnati writer/podcaster Helen Todd and training videos. Todd sees her avatar as rave reviews from most of Todd’s friends
squarely in the debate about human

creativity and artificial intelligence.

a way of producing video at scale. “We have and relatives, including Chris’s wife and
BY
MICHELE DAY to figure out what human Helen is good at three children. “The kids were blown
ILLUSTRATION BY
GLENN HARVEY
PAGE 55

and what Helen 2.ODD is good at,” she says.
“I’m never going to film 25 individual videos
Nicholas Caporusso finds Todd’s awe- welcoming guests to an event, but having my
and-anxiety experiences unsurprising. avatar do that would be a nice touch point
“Every single innovation ever invented for an event about AI.” Todd says she’s been
has the same thing,” says Caporusso, a reluctant to take on the additional workload
Northern Kentucky University computer of producing videos designed for the TikTok
science professor who researches human- platform and is considering assigning that
computer interactions. Some see new task to her clone as well.
technologies as an opportunity to advance Todd is sensitive to concerns about AI-
humanity; others fear they will destroy it. generated avatars replacing human jobs. Her
He cites Plato’s 4th century B.C. dialogue, contract with Render gives her ownership
Phaedrus, as an example. In that case, the rights to her digital likeness, an arrangement
technology in question was writing and its she sees as a crucial distinction from deep-
potential to weaken people’s memories and fake avatars created without seeking proper
spread false information. We’ve all seen consent or providing fair compensation to
how that’s played out. humans. She also emphasizes the need for
In today’s world, Todd and her pioneer- complete transparency when her avatar is
ing peers face a similar trajectory, Caporus- performing. “I always want people to know
so says. Her decision to clone herself places when I’m using it,” she says.
Todd at the forefront of the technology But none of those steps will stop her
curve that starts with innovators, followed from stoking the ongoing debate over how
by early adopters and then the early major- convincingly synthetic Helen impersonates
ity. Synthetic avatars are still “very much in her human counterpart. Even the people
the innovators stage,” says Jill Schiefelbein, who know human Helen the best disagree.
chief experience officer for Render.
Based on industry data from Render, TODD’S FAMILY MEMBERS GOT THEIR
Schiefelbein and Todd estimated in Au- first look at Helen 2.ODD before a dinner at
gust that less than 1,000 known custom her brother’s White Oak home in late July.
synthetic avatars existed worldwide. Todd “I would say it was a little uncanny how
speculates that her avatar might be the first similar the avatar was to my sister,” Chris
of its kind in Cincinnati. But early adopters Todd recalls.
are coming within the next year, Schief- A typical younger brother, he used the
elbein predicts, and Todd and Render are clone’s arrival as an opportunity to rib his
helping accelerate the movement here by sister about her own human imperfec-
hosting an Avatar Experience at ADC Fine tions. “One thing that I said jokingly, but
Art Gallery with opportunities for Cin- also in seriousness, is that the avatar spoke
cinnatians to learn more about joining the almost too well for it to be Helen,” he says
digital doubles club. with a laugh. “Helen has a tendency to mix
As synthetic avatars multiply, Todd up little colloquial sayings and words. So I
hopes Helen 2.ODD and her podcast can thought that was a bit funny.”
serve as vehicles to smooth the path for But after hearing a National Public
better human-machine relationships. “My Radio story about teachers interpreting
mission is to envision a world where art- flawless assignments as evidence students
ists not only coexist with AI but thrive,” may have used AI to enhance their work,
she says. “I want to be a proactive voice to Chris thinks his joke might reflect deeper
shape the conversations around AI to be philosophical insights into the evolving
away,” he says. “They thought it was really
neat.” And many people have told Helen
that her clone’s voice is indistinguishable
from her own.
Regardless, Chris Todd stands by his
belief that he can easily distinguish his sis-
ter from her clone. He’ll concede that the
distinction will likely be more difficult in
three to five years. But, for now, something
about the avatar’s mouth clues him into its
computer origins. “If the mouth was a little
bit sharper, that would go a long way to pro-
mote the realism,” he says.
On social media, Todd encourages fol-
lowers to make comparisons as well. She
edited the video with her initial Instagram
announcement last August so that she and
her clone appear side-by-side.
Visually, the effect is jaw dropping. The
people appear identical—same curve of
the smiles, same arch of the eyebrows. To
be clear, Todd had intentionally enhanced
the seeing-double effect. In a purposeful
sequence of life imitating art, which in
turn imitates life, she replicated her cloth-
ing and accessories for her human Helen
video shoot to those she wore during her
avatar recording session. “I wore every-
thing the same except for my fingernails,”
she says. (The clone wore red; human
Helen went natural.) But the mirror-like
impact of their common scoop-necked
black T-shirt, black onyx ring, and silver
infinity necklace is powerful.
At this point, though, Todd also ac-
knowledges that her digital replica has lim-
itations. The avatar displays elements of
what artificial intelligence experts call the
“uncanny valley” effect. “This is the space
where our brains recognize that something
is human-like but isn’t human-like enough
to be human,” says NKU’s Caporusso, of-
fering an example. “If we generate a person
who has 18 fingers, that’s uncanny because
we recognize that humans would not have
18 fingers.”
Caporusso describes the characteristics

8 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3
CLONE WARS
of machines and humans as two extremes.
“Either we consider something to be purely
synthetic like a robotic voice, or we have
something that’s really human-like,” he
says. “Anything in between is considered
uncanny. There’s this feeling that some-
thing is off.”
In the case of Helen 2.ODD, the hands
trigger my impression that something is out
of whack. The avatar always keeps its hands
clasped in front of its chest, occasionally
moving them forward and back but never re-
leasing the grip. This awkward mannerism,
which human Helen duplicated for effect
in the look-alike Instagram video, resulted
from instructions during the creation pro-
cess. The Render team advised clasping the
hands to avoid the natural human tendency
to flail our arms and make big gestures when
talking. “There are certain limited move-
ments the avatar can do,” says Todd.“It can’t
do too many things with the hands.”
The digital avatar also has some limi-
tations in expressions, a lesson Todd
learned quickly when she sent her first av-
atar video to a friend. The friend had been
a big supporter of her podcast but didn’t
“I SEE IT MORE LIKE A DIGITAL PUPPET AND NOT A
REPLACEMENT,” SAYS HELEN TODD. “IT’S NOT HELEN
2.0. IT’S MY DIGITAL AVATAR.”
always listen to the episodes in their en-
tirety. In the video, she prompted her digi-
tal counterpart to call her friend “the No. 1
fan of the podcast.” Then she hoped to add
a touch of humor by sarcastically inserting
the clause “although this may be disput-
ed.” But the nuance of sarcasm was lost on
the synthetic Helen, which delivered the
line as a statement of fact.
Caporusso expects such obvious un-
canny elements will soon disappear from
avatars. “It’s just a matter of time,” he says.
“The algorithms are quickly closing the
gap with that uncanny valley and making
content that’s so human-like it will be
almost impossible to distinguish avatars
from humans.”
Something about the confidence in his
voice stirs a wave of anxiety in me, so I in-
9 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3
terrupt. “That’s so scary,” I say.
Caporusso shrugs and smiles. “It might
be scary,” he says. “But it also might mean
we could be golfing at the same time we’re
giving a work presentation.”
TODD, LIKE CAPORUSSO, SEES THE PRO-
gression toward more human-like AI ava-
tars as unstoppable. But she downplays the
idea of humans losing their identity in a
world where machines can look and sound
just like us.
Todd compares the experience of work-
ing with a digital clone to hearing a recording
of her voice.“I don’t listen to it and think Oh,
that’s me. It is me, but it’s not quite me in the
way that I know me,” she says.
The human journalist asking the ques-
tions probes for deeper reflection, and
Todd explains the relationship from a dif-
ferent perspective. “I don’t have an exis-
tential attachment to this clone,” she says.
“I see it more like a digital puppet and not
a replacement for who I am for who I am.
It’s not Helen 2.0. There’s not going to be
a Helen 2.0.” She chose the name Helen
2.ODD to play off of her last name as well
as the strange reality of being cloned. Giv-
ing the avatar a name helps her think of it as
a separate entity. “That kind of distances it,”
she says. “It’s not me. It’s my digital avatar.”
Glancing back through her social media
channels, Todd says that all art is repre-
sentation. “As soon as it’s outside of our-
selves, it’s representing,” she says. “When
you put a photo on social media, is that
you? Not at all.”
But even those comfortable on the in-
novation curve’s leading edge must honor
the concerns of later adoptees, says Todd,
who addresses this challenge during her
introduction of Helen 2.ODD in Episode
14 of her podcast. “First and foremost, we
support humans,” she says. “Our stance is
that all AI tools should amplify human cre-
ativity and potential and never replace it.”
Todd has allocated a portion of her
podcast’s revenues to ArtsWave, the non-
profit dedicated to supporting the arts
across in Cincinnati. On Episode 14, she
also notes that 60 percent of the show’s
costs cover the people who work behind
the scenes to make Creativity Squared
possible. But she also uses the episode to
showcase her synthetic avatar’s super-hu-
man capabilities. She’s programmed Helen
2.ODD to smile and declare “It’s nice to
meet you!” in eight different languages. In
contrast, she notes, her own greetings are
restricted to English.
Back in her home office, Todd walks me
through the process of generating a video
of Helen 2.ODD. She types a prompt into
her avatar app. Seconds later, she hits play
and a voice that sounds a lot like the human
I’ve been interviewing for the previous two
hours recites the lines: Hi, Michele. Wel-
come to Creativity Squared studio. My human
counterpart is excited to show me to you.
Todd then adjusts the settings to dem-
onstrate the software’s features. She chang-
es the speed so the avatar is racing through
the lines. Too fast, we agree. Todd makes
more adjustments. This time a slow, deep
voice welcomes me to the studio. Todd
shakes her head.“Yeah, I don’t like this one,”
she says with a laugh. But her message is
clear: Her synthetic avatar is a powerful tool,
and in the right human hands it could be a
boon for human communication.
“It’s a cloned voice and a cloned im-
age,” she says, motioning toward the video
screen of Helen 2.ODD expressing her de-
light at meeting me in Hindi, Portuguese,
Polish, German, Italian, Spanish, and
French, as well as English. “It’s synthetic
media. It’s the most nonauthentic media
out there, and I’m still wrapping my head
around it too. But in some ways, it’s hu-
manized communication in ways we can’t
do. If I wanted to do a video message in
Hindi and my intention is I’m trying to
meet you where you are, I don’t think this
is taking away the human part.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think any
digital tool will help replace the human
connection, but can it help me crank out
videos?” She laughs. “Yes.”
For the human Helen Todd, that’s cause
for celebration. Bring on the smiling emojis
wearing party hats.