(NYT) – To meet the growing needs of his congregation, Justin Lester created an A.I. duplicate of himself. Every day he sees more people using it.

Lester pulled up a video of the newest member of his congregation as a few people in the audience started to record on their phones. It was his face on the screen, his voice, his mind. But it wasn’t him. “That’s my digital twin,” he said.

In the last year, Lester and hundreds of others have brought A.I. into its most human form yet by transferring their thoughts into data and building online replicas of themselves. The digital twins can answer in the real person’s voice and apply their thinking on demand for anyone who wants to chat online or call. (Read More)