Artificial intelligence serving a sentimental role in your life is an unusual, yet endearing, use of technology. Earlier this year I checked out a digital memory diary that uses AI for emotional cues and patterns within images, and I've also created physical memory books with AI.
Still, I was curious about what happens when memory sourcing comes from AI itself, in the form of voice cloning and conversations between human and AI. That's what led me to Autograph, a consumer tech startup using artificial intelligence to capture moments and memories - all from a phone call.
The premise is simple: The company's AI calls you regularly to engage in conversation about what's happened in your life and to get your reflections on days gone by. Then you get a record of that in your own voice.
"Unlike other tools that simply store data, Autograph creates living archives that grow over time and evolve across generations," CEO and co-founder Cristian Cibils Bernandes said. "Our focus is on emotional continuity, helping people share, shape and sustain their family legacy in their own voices."
He, along with Santiago Racca, founded Autograph in 2024 with the intention of guiding conversations that feel like chatting with an old friend.
Autograph uses artificial intelligence across three main areas of its product: text-to-speech AI that converts your recorded call into a transcript, personalized prompts over previous sessions, and surfacing moments by keyword, topic or date.
Cibils Bernardes refers to Autograph as an "AI memories platform," where "voices, stories, and meaning are captured," to ensure everyone can be remembered in their own words.
The setup for Autograph is quick, but will require your phone.
1. Head to Autograph's website, create an account and start the free 14-day trial. You don't need a payment plan to access it, and you'll be immediately prompted to the homepage to start your three-step onboarding process.
2. Select "Start Call" on the screen to begin onboarding.I assumed the platform would collect basic info and a short voice sample. Instead, I received multiple texts on my phone. Shortly after, I received a call from "Walter," Autograph's "biographer."
3. Walter leads with guided questions to understand your background, childhood and teenage years. He - er, it - adjusts based on your responses, though I'm sure from a smaller collection of data. Over time, calls build on earlier sessions, and Walter adjusts based on the information it has received about you. I found Walter's speaking style to be extremely laborious, so I set a 10-minute boundary to complete our onboarding. (Yet when I paused to think before responding, Walter cut me off.)
4. At the end of the call, you have the option to leave feedback for Walter to improve. Then, each session is transcribed and added to your digital Autograph on your account. You can edit or tag the transcript and mark sensitive stories "private."
5. Last, you can export the transcript after the call and decide who can access the link to your transcript, similar to Google Docs.
For all of Autograph's focus on people's lifetime experiences, the user experience for me was often uncomfortable. I felt very exposed using this platform. I wasn't reassured when I went to Autograph's privacy policy page; while it did offer some cursory answers, the links to fuller explanations simply didn't work.
When I asked Racca about privacy protections, he said that all conversations are encrypted throughout and after the call, stored securely on the company's systems, and never shared externally. He also told me that the content of each call - turned into a transcript - scrubs personally identifying information. Essentially, insights are used to improve the product experience, but words stay private to you.
Then there's the matter of the calls with Walter. The tedious pace frustrated me and I didn't enjoy speaking to a bot with such a lack of rapport. There were also details within the AI that needed refinement, like hearing "have a good evening" at 10 a.m., or how post-call my laptop's onboarding process couldn't update because the onboarding process occurred... over the phone.
When I raised these concerns, the Autograph team didn't directly address them. Instead, Racca said that "Walter is treated as an opportunity for user research, creating a constant feedback loop that helps us adapt the product to people's needs," and he detailed how scheduling and follow-up calls can seem repetitive.
I had two weeks to use the platform before committing to its $30/month membership, but I made my decision - nope, not for me - within minutes.
Trust is a huge component of emotional processing, whether sharing personal details or positive moments. For a better experience, I'm envisioning something like a combination of Autograph and Memairy, the digital memory diary I tried earlier. It would start with personal visual cues and then give users appointment times for conversational deep dives with a more adept Walter, with hearty attention given to AI privacy policy.
For me, Autograph needs some critical improvements before I can recommend it. Given that it's a pre-seed startup, the company is just at the beginning of its evolution, so I'll be sure to keep an eye out for updates in the months ahead.
