Your digital twin: The AI version of you

I had an opportunity to interview my digital twin on stage. It—or should I say, she?—was created by Delphi cofounder and CEO Dara Ladjevardian, whose company has created thousands of digital clones for clients who want to, as he put it, “scale their minds.” That could be consultants who are using digital clones to engage potential clients in conversation or CEOs who want to help employees understand their thinking on a range of issues. The goal, says Ladjevardian, is to train these digital replicas to “be predictive of you.”

What’s fun, and disconcerting, is how these clones can engage in conversation. Mine knew my sister’s name, thanks to a podcast from a decade ago that I hadn’t realized it found, and it cited my own phrases back to me. (Note to self: the alliteration that seemed clever on a LinkedIn bio can sound trite when you hear it said out loud.) And, unlike me, my twin could instantly call up facts and anecdotes from past stories and serve up observations about current affairs in my voice.

Did it capture the essence of who I am? No. I thought it was more humorless and way more superficial than I am in real life. There’s a mildly creepy quality to my video avatar—the movie Cats comes to mind—where my mouth and eyes didn’t seem quite in sync. But—hey—maybe that’s because I never look at myself as I talk.  I presume the technology will get better at capturing tone, personality and empathy. But let me know what you think. You can speak with digital Diane yourself by clicking on this link. 

• Change the World is Fortune’s annual list featuring companies that are doing well by doing good. These companies are using the creative tools of business to help the planet and tackle society’s unmet needs—and they’re earning a profit while doing so. You can see last year’s honorees here. The deadline for applications this year is Tuesday, July 29; the list will be published in late September, and will appear in the October/November issue of Fortune magazine.

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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Looming behind the China trade talks: Samarium

China has an ace up its sleeve in its trade talks with the U.S., which continue in London today: It controls the planet’s entire supply of a rare earth material called samariam. The U.S. military is dependent on the chemical, which is used almost exclusively in fighter jets because it has magnetic properties and can withstand high heat.

Trump deploys Marines to LA

President Trump deployed about 700 Marines to Los Angeles to protect federal buildings from pro-immigration protestors, despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who says the troops aren’t needed. Trump suggested Newsom might be arrested if he doesn’t cooperate. Newsom said he will sue Trump. Monday’s protests were largely peaceful.

Apple redesigns operating system

Although Apple didn’t make any major new product announcements at its WWDC event yesterday, it did unveil a major new look, called “Liquid Glass,” for the operating system on all its devices. Buttons and control panels will now be transparent and appear to sit on top of the underlying screen. Video here.

RFK Jr. moves against vaccine panel

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine policy committee and vowed to replace them with his own appointments. Critics fear those appointments will be vaccine sceptics.

FTC investigates ad agencies who boycotted X

The FTC has written to the major global ad agency networks to ask whether they cooperated with each other in a boycott of Elon Musk’s X platform. The move is interesting because the FTC usually investigates anticompetitive business practices between companies, not anticompetitive refusal to do business.

Chipotle wants to open a new location almost every day

Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright revealed at Fortune’s COO Summit on Monday that the fast-casual chain wants to open a new location “almost every 24 hours” this year. The company is doing so through its AI-powered hiring system, Ava Cado, which Boatwright says has sped up hiring times by 75%.

Klarna CEO warns of AI-induced recession

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said that AI will displace enough white-collar workers that it could cause a recession. “Unfortunately, I don’t see how we could avoid that with what’s happening from a technology perspective,” Siemiatkowski said.

The markets

• S&P 500 futures moved down marginally before the opening bell this morning, but are still priced above the 6,000 mark. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% yesterday. The index is up 2.1% YTD. Globally, investors seem to be in a wait-and-see mode: Stocks are largely flat this morning. All the major Asian indexes closed up with the exception of the markets in China and Hong Kong which moved down marginally. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.1% in early trading. Apple closed down 1.2% yesterday after its annual developer event delivered no major surprises.

From the analysts 

• Wedbush on Musk and Tesla: “At the end of the day Trump needs Musk to stay close to the Republican party and Musk needs Trump for many reasons including a green light on a federal framework for autonomous. The timing of this globally watched frenemies situation is not ideal as Tesla is set to launch in Austin its highly anticipated Robotaxi … we believe over the coming year we will see Robotaxi deployed in 20 to 25 cities in the US,” per Daniel Ives and team.
• JPMorgan on Apple: “Apple’s WWDC event did not include any major surprises that would convince investors around material changes to their outlook for either iPhones (or other devices) with the company marking out a set of incremental updates to its platform on different devices as well as opening up access to on-device Foundational AI models to developers - which can potentially be instrumental in driving interesting use cases/applications for consumers in time, but with limited immediate tailwinds,” per Samik Chatterjee and team.
• Goldman Sachs on Switzerland interest rates maybe going negative: “... the SNB still has room to cut the policy rate before it reaches the effective lower bound, which we see below -0.75%. … Switzerland has experience in implementing negative interest rates while cushioning the impact on bank profitability. … [And] the US has put Switzerland on the watchlist of countries monitored for unfair trade and currency practices, which at the margin could make substantial FX interventions less likely,” per Sven Jari Stehn and team.
• Joachim Klement on European defense stocks: “The amount of spending being proposed here is enormous. For example, if the UK, France, Spain, and Italy were to raise defence budgets to 3.5% of GDP by the mid-2030s, they would each have to increase their annual defence spending by about $40 billion. In total, NATO members would have to boost their annual defence budgets by around $375 billion,” he said.

Around the watercooler

Exclusive: Gusto launches $200 million-plus tender offer by Allie Garfinkle

Duolingo’s CEO outlined his plan to become an ‘AI-first’ company. He didn’t expect the human backlash that followed by Sara Braun

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF becomes fastest-ever ETF to accumulate $70 billion by Catherine McGrath

Trump’s memo activating the National Guard doesn’t specify L.A. It could apply anywhere and preemptively, legal expert says by Jason Ma

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shares the No. 1 career mistake Gen Z is making in their 20s that’s easily avoidable by Preston Fore

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.