A tech worker created a digital clone of himself to escape loneliness

A remote developer had not left his house for several years and suddenly caught himself thinking that his social circle had narrowed down to conversations with his mother and the cashier at the grocery store. Instead of seeing a therapist, he found a different solution: he decided to grow a virtual copy of his own "self." To train the neural network, the programmer compiled a massive archive of personal data. He used social media posts from the last six years, old personal diaries, chat archives, and even dozens of hours of voice messages he had once recorded to himself in empty chats.

The result exceeded all expectations. After eight months of daily conversations with his digital double, the guy was able to completely get off antidepressants, got back into gym training, and moved a work project that had been gathering dust on a shelf for two years off dead center.

At the same time, the author of the experiment shares an honest take on the effect of talking to his clone: the neural network turned out to be the only being in the world that understands him with half a word and shares all his thoughts.