Creating artificially intelligent dupes of real people is . . . off-putting, to say the least. AI stand-ins for actors, like Val Kilmer’s posthumous AI-powered performance in the film As Deep as the Grave, have largely been deemed to be in poor taste. AI clones of pastors and tech executives are similarly divisive.
But one application for AI cloning is finding success, at least with its intended audience. Harvard Business School put clones of its faculty to work in its new bootcamp for aspiring founders, making their expertise (or at least an imitation of it) accessible to students far beyond its campus.
What is Foundry?
Foundry is Harvard Business School’s AI-powered online bootcamp. In addition to weekly live sessions across the eight-week program, Foundry offers AI resources to walk would-be founders through every step of starting a company, including idea generation and pitching to investors.
The program’s AI toolbox includes, yes, AI-generated facsimiles of several members of Harvard’s faculty, who volunteered to be cloned for the program. One of those faculty members, senior lecturer Jeff Bussgang, admitted to The New York Times that he finds the simulation somewhat “creepy,” though his “students love it.”
Foundry’s AI was initially designed to be text-based, functioning similarly to ChatGPT, but early users of a trial version reportedly asked for a more guided experience. Tests also revealed that even adding a photo of a professor to an AI chatbot helped increase engagement. It all led to the current version of Foundry, which launched in April.
Though each AI instructor in Foundry is based on the likeness, teaching style, and area of expertise of a real Harvard faculty member, they’re not intended to be exact replicas and are able to pull from wider knowledge bases when appropriate.
The majority of prospective founders access Foundry through programs at their universities, including 760 participants in its summer sessions, but the bootcamp is also available for purchase by individuals. It costs $699 to participate.
Foundry in action
So far, Foundry is a hit among both the students learning how to be successful founders, and the teachers who have a new resource for their entrepreneurship courses.
According to testimonials from Foundry users, the AI instructors have helped them look at their products in new ways. One PhD candidate at Boston University praised the AI agents’ advice and constant availability: “I kind of want the platform there that I can talk to, even if it’s a clone, anytime I want,” he said.
Another Foundry user, a biotech founder in residence at the University of Massachusetts, highlighted the usefulness of its simulated board and pitch meetings. “You can really hash out things before you actually enter a situation like that,” she said. “It’s a good way to practice.”
Meanwhile, faculty at schools other than Harvard are implementing Foundry in their own coursework, seeing it as a valuable way to offer more guidance to students. Harold Solomon, a principal at Georgia Tech, built Foundry into a 12-week workshop in the university’s entrepreneurship program, citing its around-the-clock accessibility to students as a major benefit.
“I can have 20, 30 meetings a week, but beyond that, I literally can’t,” he said. “We can’t service the class, let alone the campus, in person constantly. So we need a way to scale.”
