In a world rapidly reshaped by artificial intelligence, one founder is on a mission to ensure our stories – and our humanity – aren’t left behind.
Cristian Cibils Bernardes, Founder and CEO of Autograph AI, joined the Power Talk Show to share his deeply personal and transformative journey: from growing up in Paraguay in a tech-driven family, to studying symbolic systems at Stanford, to becoming a Google engineer, and finally, to creating a company with the power to preserve legacies forever.
The Spark Behind Autograph AI
Autograph AI wasn’t built as a conventional startup. It was born from Cristian’s emotional realization after nearly missing the chance to interview his grandmother and capture her life story. Her stroke days before the planned conversation became the catalyst for a bigger vision: what if we could talk to our past, even after our loved ones are gone?
The result? Autograph AI – a platform powered by voice AI and memory-based LLMs that allows families to record, interact, and eventually converse with a digital version of their loved ones. Autograph doesn’t just collect stories – it creates dynamic, emotionally intelligent digital personas that retain memories, tone, and the essence of a person.
“Everyone loves somebody more than death,” Cristian said, and that human truth sits at the heart of the platform.
More Than Memory: Building a Living Legacy
Cristian’s vision goes far beyond memoirs. Autograph AI is becoming an identity layer for the agentic economy — where future AI agents understand your values, preferences, and thought processes by learning from your digital twin. Imagine your grandchildren being able to ask you for advice 50 years from now – and receiving not just a story, but a simulated conversation based on your lived experience.
He calls it a tribute to the generation before us, and a gift to the ones that come after.
Tech with Soul
Cristian emphasizes that while AI is transforming everything from healthcare to productivity, it must be guided by data that reflects the best of humanity. In his words, “We have to feed AI with stories of people trying to improve themselves, trying to love and to learn.”
With Autograph AI, he’s doing just that.