How to Create an AI Person: The Four Kinds, and How to Make One of Yourself

The four kinds are AI characters, AI influencers, talking avatars and AIs of real people. They differ most on the question most tutorials skip: whose consent you need before you build.

Read the consent column first. The first three kinds carry little legal risk while the face, name and voice are invented or licensed, but copying a real, identifiable person puts you in the fourth row, where Tennessee, California and New York already set the rules. Our verdicts: Character.AI for fiction, an AI influencer only if you will run the character like a business, HeyGen or Synthesia for business video, and an AI Persona of yourself on Afterlife.ai™ for your family.

Write a personality, give the character a name, a greeting and a few sample lines, then publish on a character app such as Character.AI. The job takes minutes, and the quality depends on how specific your description is.

"Friendly pirate" produces a generic chatbot, while a pirate with a home port, an old grudge and a rule about never discussing treasure gives every reply something to draw on. Add two or three sample exchanges in the exact voice you want, and list what the character refuses to discuss. The same method works for custom instructions in ChatGPT or a project prompt in Claude. Character.AI is free, and Character.AI+ is listed at $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year in the US App Store as of October 2026, where the app is rated 18+.

Verdict: best for fiction, games and practice conversations. Keep every character invented, because a real name, face or voice turns your character into a digital replica covered by the laws below. If you want an AI that knows you instead, our Character.AI alternative guide explains the difference.

An AI influencer is a fictional human face kept identical across hundreds of posts, so most of the work is consistency. Run the character like a brand with a style guide.

1. Write a one-page character bible: name, age, city, job, style, opinions and the products the character will never promote.

2. Generate a reference sheet of the face from several angles and approve one look before you post.

3. Feed that reference into every new image so the fiftieth photo matches the first.

4. Add a voice and a talking-video avatar for short-form video.

5. Label the character in ads, because New York requires it.

The best-known example, Lil Miquela, was created by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou at Brud, a Los Angeles startup, and first posted on Instagram on April 23, 2016 (Wikipedia, 2026). New York's synthetic performer law (S.8420-A / A.8887-B), signed by Governor Kathy Hochul on December 11, 2025 and in force since June 9, 2026, requires an advertiser who knows an ad contains a synthetic performer to disclose that conspicuously, with civil penalties of $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each one after (Cooley, 2026). Verdict: best for brands and creators who will post daily and track the results.

Record a short video of yourself or pick a stock presenter, type a script, and the tool renders a lip-synced video. HeyGen and Synthesia lead the category, and both let you start free.

HeyGen's free plan includes 3 videos a month of up to one minute each and 1 custom video avatar, and Creator costs $29 a month ($24 billed yearly) for videos up to 30 minutes. Synthesia's free Basic plan gives you 10 minutes of watermarked video a month, Starter costs $29 a month ($18 billed yearly), and Pro costs $89 a month ($64 billed yearly) with 5 personal avatars, all as of October 2026. HeyGen's privacy policy says it collects explicit consent through a clear affirmative action during avatar creation, before it extracts any biometric data (HeyGen, 2026).

Verdict: best for training, sales and explainer videos. The avatar knows only what you type into each script, which suits an onboarding video but not a grandchild who wants to ask you a question. We rank the whole field in best AI avatar apps.

Yes, if that person consents, and the easiest person to get consent from is you. An AI of a real person is defined by what it knows: one human being's memories, opinions, phrases and voice.

There are two legitimate routes. You can build your own on Afterlife.ai™, where you talk with your Persona, tell your stories and record your voice, and the people you choose can talk with your Persona. Or a professional can build an expert clone that answers questions about their work: Delphi offers a free first "Digital Mind" and a Builder plan at $79 a month as of October 2026.

Building one of someone else is a different job. A living friend, colleague or parent can agree, but they should do the building, because only they can correct what you get wrong about them. For your mom or dad, your parent builds their own Persona while you help: they tell the stories, record their own voice, own the Persona and make every decision. Afterlife.ai™ never recreates a person who did not consent while alive, and under 18s cannot build a Persona. Our guide to creating an AI version of a real person covers the consent conversation in detail.

Only with that person's consent, and Tennessee, California and New York already spell out what consent has to look like. The federal NO FAKES Act would set one national rule, but as of October 2026 it is not law.

The federal picture. Senators Marsha Blackburn, Chris Coons, Thom Tillis and Amy Klobuchar reintroduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act on May 20, 2026, adding a counter-notification process so a poster can dispute a takedown (Manatt, 2026). The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill by unanimous voice vote on June 18, 2026 (AI Films Studio, 2026). On September 30, 2026, Senator Ted Cruz objected to Senator Blackburn's request to pass the bill by unanimous consent, which leaves it stalled until at least November (Daily Journal, 2026). Our NO FAKES Act explainer tracks what the bill would change.

Tennessee. The Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, signed by Governor Bill Lee on March 21, 2024, protects a person's voice whether the sound is real or simulated (Manatt, 2024). It also makes liable anyone who distributes software whose primary purpose is producing a specific person's voice or likeness, knowing the use is unauthorized. That clause exposes any "talk to a celebrity" app built on copied voices.

California and New York. Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2602 and AB 1836 on September 17, 2024 (Manatt, 2024). AB 2602 voids a contract clause that lets a digital replica replace a performer's in-person work when the clause lacks a reasonably specific description and the performer had no lawyer or union, and New York applies the same three-part test under General Obligations Law section 5-302 (Littler, 2025). AB 1836 makes anyone who uses a dead performer's digital replica without the estate's consent liable for the greater of $10,000 or actual damages. A New York companion law requires consent for commercial use of a dead person's name, voice or likeness, with damages of at least $2,000 (Conventus Law, 2026).

An AI of yourself raises none of these problems, because you are the one consenting. For a living friend or relative, get consent in writing that describes every use, and expect a celebrity clone to draw a lawsuit. Our digital replica laws by state guide covers the rest of the map.

Sign up free on Afterlife.ai™, tell your Persona a few real stories, record your voice and one 30-second video, then name your Trusted Contacts and your executor. The free build never expires, so nothing you make in those ten minutes disappears.

1. Create your free account. Sign up at app.afterlife.ai or in the iPhone or Android app. There is no card, and one account works everywhere in 42 languages.

2. Tell your Persona your first stories. Talk or type, using real names, places and years: the street you grew up on, how you met your partner, your worst job. Each story becomes a memory your Persona draws on, and the free build holds 25 of them.

3. Record your voice. Your Persona then speaks in your own cloned voice. Creating your voice is free, and your first listen is free, so you hear the result before you decide anything else.

4. Record one 30-second video. Persona Video turns that single recording into video messages of you, in your face and your own voice. Your first Persona Video is free.

5. Name your Trusted Contacts. Choose up to 5 people who can talk with your Persona, starting with the ones who ask you the most questions.

6. Set up Executor Lock™. Name your executor now. At verified death, your Persona is locked as the snapshot you approved.

Ten minutes gets you a working Persona that knows your first stories and speaks in your voice, and every memory you add makes your Persona sound more like you. Spend the next week on the stories your family asks about most, then ask a Trusted Contact to try a conversation and tell you what is missing. See what those conversations feel like in talk with a Persona, and read how to create an AI version of yourself for the memories that matter most.

You can start every kind of AI person in this guide free, and the paid plans run from $9.99 to $89 a month as of October 2026. What matters more is what the money buys, because a video presenter and an AI that knows your life are different products.

Example: say you want a short video of you talking and an AI that answers in your own words for a year. HeyGen Creator billed yearly ($288) plus Delphi Builder ($948) costs $1,236 across two accounts. On Afterlife.ai™ you start at $0, because creating your voice, your first listen and your first Persona Video are free and the free build never expires, and if you keep building, Legacy costs $179.88 for the year. Afterlife.ai™ Twin, which answers visitors as you on your website, through an API and in AI assistants over MCP, comes with Pro, and paying $599 a year instead of $59.99 a month saves $120.88. Every plan is on our pricing page.

That depends on the app's terms and on who can still log in. On Afterlife.ai™, you decide in advance with Executor Lock™, and after a verified death nobody can change what you decided.

Executor Lock™ is the patent-pending governance layer behind every Persona. While you are alive, you name your executor and your Trusted Contacts. At verified death your Persona is locked as a perfect snapshot: nobody can edit, retrain or impersonate you after that, so your family always meets the Persona you approved. Things you leave for people are released after Executor Lock™ activates, and Idy®, the company behind Afterlife.ai™, has 78 patents pending, including two international PCT applications filed in August 2026.

Before you upload your face or voice to any AI tool, read what its terms say about your account after you die and who can change your avatar, voice and chats. If the terms say nothing, assume whoever holds the password controls that copy of you. Read how the lock works on our Executor Lock™ page.

• Manatt: Congress Reintroduces the NO FAKES Act: What's New in the 2026 Bill

• AI Films Studio: NO FAKES Act Clears Senate Judiciary Committee in Unanimous Vote

• Daily Journal: NO FAKES Act dead for now as Cruz objects to unanimous consent request

• Manatt: Tennessee's ELVIS Act Expands Publicity Rights for Individuals' Voices and Protects Against AI Misuses

• Manatt: California Enacts a Suite of New AI and Digital Replica Laws

• Littler: New York's Digital Replica Law and Its Impact on Artificial Intelligence and the Entertainment Industry

• Cooley: New York Enacts Synthetic Performer Disclosure Law for Advertisements

• Conventus Law: Two Newly Enacted New York Laws Will Regulate Certain AI-Generated Images

• HeyGen: Pricing

• HeyGen: Privacy Policy

• Synthesia: Pricing

• Delphi: Pricing

• Apple App Store: Character.AI

• Wikipedia: Miquela