Ray Dalio Unveils 'Digital Ray': An AI Clone for Investment and Life Advice

Ray Dalio says his AI clone will be able to give you investment and career insights whenever you want | Fortune

The next time you're stuck in a career rut, or you're wondering how to process the economy around you, why not ask Ray Dalio? The wealth of experience accumulated by the billionaire hedge fund founder will soon be at the fingertips of users thanks to his new AI clone, Digital Ray, which will provide consumers with coaching, guidance and mentorship. Writing on X, the Bridgewater Associates founder said he was excited by the prospect of his clone because it will allow him "to have unlimited conversations with people I previously didn't have the time to have exchanges with." Announcing the clone -- which currently has a waitlist to join its beta trial -- Dalio said the move was a natural extension from the computing partners he had been developing at Bridgewater for decades which helped in decision-making. Using AI in some form -- even before the LLM boom following the launch of ChatGPT -- to assist in investment strategy and decisions is common on Wall Street, but Dalio is the first of his peers to launch an accessible advice platform. LinkedIn co-founder and tech investor Reid Hoffman previously revealed his own "digital twin," but this is not available for general conversation. Dalio's aim is to make his experiences and insights accessible to all. He added on X: "Sharing all that I've learned, all that I'm doing, and all that I am imagining is consistent with my current main goal in life, which is to pass along what I have that can be valuable to others." That not only includes his experience in the financial world but also now his experiencing with training bots, he added: "I believe that I have a good idea of what [AI clones] have the potential to do for both a) those who use the digital clones to access the thinking of the individuals cloned and b) the individual being cloned who wants to use the digital clone as a thought partner." Developing AI clones for high-profile individuals like Dalio comes with risks. Large language models (LLMs) have famously hallucinated incorrect or inappropriate answers, and have guardrails that researchers have demonstrated can be bypassed. For Dalio's experience to be replicated with Digital Ray, which will be able to converse with users through both text and voice, the stakes are high. But Dalio said he began working on the LLM which eventually became his AI clone in 2022, uploading decades' worth of data first collated at Bridgewater. The bot "doesn't hallucinate" Dalio added, and continued: "Based on the ratings of those who have used it, you will find both the thinking and the communications that you will get from Digital Ray in these conversations virtually indistinguishable from those you would get from me directly." Indeed: "According to those who have tested it, it's about 95% as good as speaking with the real me about life and work because it has been well-trained on my life and work principles. It's about 80% as good as speaking with me about markets, investing, the economy, politics, and geopolitics." That rating on markets and investing is likely to increase, Dalio said, because he is training the clone on these subjects at present. Indeed, he's already asking his supporters for help on what the clone should be learning. Writing on LinkedIn earlier this week, the man worth $19.4 billion according to Bloomberg invited followers to ask questions in the comment which could be used as prompts to improve the bot. While fans of Dalio's strategy -- and those looking for a new sounding board -- may appreciate his replication, the rise of AI clones is presenting problems for high profile and notable individuals. In Dalio's case his clone is being replicated with his full consent and support, but that isn't always the case. Zelda Williams, the daughter of Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams, issued a strong rebuke to fans who continually sent her AI-generated videos of her father after his death. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Williams wrote on Instagram earlier this month. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't." Williams added: "If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, I'll restrict and move on. But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want." Similarly, actress Scarlett Johansson said last year that she was forced to hire a legal team to address OpenAI's ChatGPT voice, which sounded like the Hollywood star. Johansson said in a statement that was reposted on X, formerly Twitter, that CEO Sam Altman contacted her last September and asked her to be the voice actress for its ChatGPT 4.0 system. Johansson declined Altman's offer, only to hear from friends, family and the public nine months later that the "Sky" voice sounded just like her. In a statement to Fortune, Altman said the voice of Sky is not Johansson's "and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better."

Ray Dalio Has Created an A.I. Clone of Himself to Pass on His Wisdom

Ray Dalio's "Digital Ray" uses decades of his writings to replicate his thinking and advice. Since stepping away from the day-to-day operation at Bridgewater, Ray Dalio has devoted much of his time and energy to sharing his thoughts with the world and mentoring the next generation. But as one person, the 76-year-old billionaire has limited time. To address that, Dalio is introducing "Digital Ray," an A.I. clone built on decades of his values, perspectives and wisdom. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters "It will allow me to have unlimited conversations with people I previously didn't have the time to have exchanges with," he said in an X post unveiling his chatbot. Interested users can join a waitlist to try the product, which is currently in beta and can communicate through both text and voice. Dalio describes Digital Ray as a natural extension of what he's been doing for decades. Shortly after founding Bridgewater in 1975, he began documenting his decision-making processes and feeding them into computers to improve company operations. The approach clearly worked: Dalio's net worth now stands at an estimated $15.4 billion, and Bridgewater manages nearly $100 billion in assets, making it one of the world's largest hedge funds. To share his ideas more broadly, Dalio has authored several best-selling books, host Q&As on social media, and even launched an advice app called Coach. His thinking took a new turn in 2022 after the release of ChatGPT. Inspired by the technology, Dalio decided to train a large language model (LLM) on his own data -- work that ultimately led to Digital Ray. "With the help of my great team, I now have my first version of an A.I. clone of myself that can have conversations with people that are roughly as good as the conversations they could have with me, but without the time limitations that I have," he said. Over the past two years, hundreds of independent testers have evaluated Digital Ray's responses. According to Dalio, it now performs about 95 percent as well as he does when discussing life and work, and 80 percent when analyzing markets, investing, economics, politics and geopolitics. Those numbers, he said, should improve as the model continues to absorb more of his thinking. Eventually, Dalio predicts, it will become "much better educated and much better at processing many complex considerations more quickly than I can." Dalio stressed that his digital clone differs from both A.I. agents and general-purpose LLMs. Agents carry out tasks, and LLMs aggregate information from countless sources, but both "lack the values, perspectives and preferences that are important to human decision-making," he explained. A.I. clones like Digital Ray, by contrast, are designed to emulate a specific person's way of thinking and reflecting. Dalio isn't alone in exploring A.I. cloning. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman created a similar experiment called "Reid AI" last year, even holding a video conversation with his digital counterpart. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has used an A.I. avatar to present his company's quarterly earnings, and Zoom chief Eric Yuan has said his company plans to develop "digital twins" capable of attending meetings and making decisions for users. Dalio envisions a similar future. "I believe that the evolution of A.I. will lead to people having their own personalized A.I.s that will be called "My A.I.s" that will take in and keep out information to make sure they are well curated to suit each person's preferences," said Dalio, adding that he would love to eventually congregate of group of A.I. clones to work together as a committee of advisors. "Who knows where this thing could go? I want to help push the limits to find out."