My AI Clone Attended Conferences While I Flew Planes. Here's What Could Go Wrong.

I’m a DevRel and a hobby pilot. One day I had a choice: attend a virtual tech conference or go flying. I chose both.

I built an AI version of myself, trained on my writing, talks, and technical knowledge and sent it to the conference while I was literally at 10,000 feet. It networked, answered questions, gave technical advice, and made commitments on my behalf.

When I landed, I had to deal with the consequences.

First Half (Accessible):

• Why I built an AI clone of myself
• The technical setup: voice, knowledge base, decision-making
• What it did at the conference (networking, technical discussions)
• The commitments my AI made that I had to honor
• The identity crisis: “Did I say that, or did my AI?”

Second Half (Technical Deep Dive):

• Architecture: Building a personal AI clone (LLMs, RAG, voice synthesis)
• MCP setup for conference integration (chat, networking, Q&A)
• What went right: Technical answers, networking, style matching
• What went wrong: Overcommitment, context misses, uncanny valley moments
• Live demo: My AI clone answering questions in real-time
• The philosophical problem: When is it me vs when is it just software?

Key Takeaways:

• How to build a personal AI assistant/clone (real architecture)
• The limits of AI representation (technical and social)
• When automation crosses into weird territory
• Practical lessons: What you should/shouldn’t delegate to AI
• The future question: If your AI can represent you, what’s left?