An AI clone is a digital version of you that can appear on camera and speak in your voice without you recording anything new. You give it a script, and it delivers that script with your face, your voice and something close to your way of speaking. Founders use them because posting short video every day is one of the most reliable ways to build an audience, and very few founders have the time to film that often.
What an AI clone is made of
Most clones have two parts that are built separately and then combined. The first is a video avatar of your face, which is trained on footage of you talking to camera. The second is a clone of your voice, trained on recordings of you speaking.
Rowan Cheung, who runs The Rundown AI, uses HeyGen for the face and ElevenLabs for the voice. He has said on the Startup Ideas Podcast that making the voice separately in ElevenLabs sounds better than using the voice built into the video tool.
The quality of both parts depends heavily on the footage you start with. Clear audio, steady lighting and a natural way of talking give the models much more to work with than a few short clips.
How founders use them
The most common use is daily short-form video on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and X. The founder or their team writes the script, the clone delivers it, and an editor adds captions, B-roll and music before it goes out.
Rowan started a 30-day test with his clone in August 2024, and the account later passed 200,000 Instagram followers. Alex Lieberman, who co-founded Morning Brew and now co-runs Tenex, had an avatar built for Tenex that reached 18,000 followers and over 2 million views in a few months, along with thousands of newsletter signups and leads.
What these accounts have in common is the format. They post news, breakdowns and explainers, where the information matters more than who delivers it, which is exactly where a clone is strongest.
What makes a clone work
The clone only replaces the recording. Rowan has said his team still spends hours on research, scripts and editing, so a good video still needs a strong script and sharp editing behind it.
Video avatars still lag slightly behind voice clones, so the accounts that look best keep the face on screen in short beats. Rowan keeps his clone’s face up for the first 3 to 4 seconds and lets B-roll carry the rest, which hides most of what would otherwise look off.
The best accounts also say plainly that it’s AI. Rowan disclosed it in every video, plus tags, captions and comments, and reported near-zero backlash.
Where clones fall short
Clones struggle with personal content. The gaming YouTuber Kwebbelkop gave his AI clone its own channel, and it has around 1.26 million subscribers but only about 832,000 total views, according to Social Blade. His audience came for his personality, and that is the hardest thing for a clone to carry.
Most founders who use a clone well also keep posting real videos of themselves for personal stories and big announcements, and let the clone handle the regular news and explainer posts.
Can people tell it’s a clone?
Voice clones are now very hard to tell apart from the real person. In a 2025 study in Scientific Reports, 604 listeners judged an ElevenLabs voice clone to be the same person as the real voice about 80% of the time, and correctly flagged a clone as AI only about 60% of the time. Video is improving quickly too: Alex Lieberman could list four giveaways in his first avatar in 2024, and a year later his avatar account was pulling millions of views.
Is it allowed?
Cloning yourself is the normal and intended use. HeyGen asks for a consent video from the person being cloned, and several platforms now ask creators to label AI-generated content. Labelling it yourself is the safest approach, because it means a platform label never surprises your audience.
Common questions
What is an AI clone made of?
Two parts: a video avatar of your face, trained on footage of you, and a clone of your voice. Rowan Cheung, for example, uses HeyGen for the face and ElevenLabs for the voice.
Can people tell an AI voice clone from the real person?
Often not. In a 2025 study in Scientific Reports, listeners judged an ElevenLabs voice clone to be the same person as the real voice about 80% of the time.
Is it legal to make an AI clone of yourself?
Cloning yourself is the normal use. Tools like HeyGen ask for a consent video from the person being cloned, and some platforms ask you to label AI-generated content.