Tyler Denk, founder of the fast-growing newsletter platform Beehiiv, just launched an unusual new feature for his audience: an AI version of himself. Built by AI cloning startup Delphi, the virtual Denk — called DenkBot — can text, talk, and answer questions just like the real Tyler.
It’s not a gimmick. It’s part of a growing trend where business leaders are using AI to scale themselves.
What Is DenkBot?
DenkBot is trained on almost everything Tyler Denk has ever produced — his writing, podcasts, social media posts, even Beehiiv’s support documents. Subscribers to his personal newsletter, Big Desk Energy (BDE), can interact with the bot to get advice, insights, and answers based on Denk’s past content — without needing to dig through archives.
The idea? Save time, deepen engagement, and make expert knowledge easier to access.
The Startup Powering It: Delphi
The technology behind DenkBot comes from Delphi, an AI startup that builds personalized AI clones. Delphi creates digital versions of people using their voice, writing, videos, and other materials. The clone can hold conversations, answer questions, and act as a kind of always-available assistant.
According to Delphi’s CEO Dara Ladjevardian, business leaders are a major use case. A founder can upload speeches, documents, and onboarding materials — and then let their clone guide new hires or answer questions from customers. Ladjevardian uses his own AI clone as a kind of virtual assistant on Delphi’s website. When someone chats with the clone and identifies themselves — for example, as an AI engineer, a startup founder, or a coach — Ladjevardian gets an alert. This helps him spot potential customers, collaborators, or even future hires without needing to be in every conversation himself.
Not Just Imitation — Guardrails Too
Cloning someone’s voice and brain isn’t easy — and it can go wrong. Delphi says it has built strong “hallucination guardrails” to keep its bots from saying things the real person wouldn’t. Users can even control how “creative” their clone is.
- A low creativity score means the bot sticks closely to the original material.
- A high score lets the bot generate more flexible answers in the person’s voice — but with a risk of error.
In either case, the real person can step in, correct mistakes, and provide more training to the clone.
From Founders to Celebrities
Delphi isn’t alone in this space. MasterClass launched its own platform in 2024, letting users talk to AI versions of celebrities like Mark Cuban and Gordon Ramsay. Even café chain Le Pain Quotidien created an AI version of its founder, Alain Coumont.
And it raises interesting questions. Google, for example, recently published a paper on what happens when an AI clone outlives its human creator — calling them “generative ghosts.”
The Future of Content Is Conversation
For Denk, this is about more than cool tech. He believes that the old model of digging through blog posts and email archives is fading. Tools like Delphi offer something better: a searchable, interactive version of yourself that can scale your voice and ideas far beyond what’s possible with writing alone.
No official partnership has been announced between Beehiiv and Delphi — but the use case is clear. For creators, founders, and experts with loyal followings, AI clones might be the next step in personal branding: always on, always available, and always ready to answer.
Prepared by Navruzakhon Burieva
