Preserving human stories and wisdom across generations has always been a fundamental human challenge. What happens when we’re no longer here to share our experiences, comfort our loved ones, or guide them through difficult times? Cristian Cibils Bernardes, founder of Autograph AI, believes artificial intelligence might hold the answer to this age-old question.
Preserving Voices Beyond Life
Most people don’t like thinking about mortality, but Cristian built his entire business around it. “Our time here is limited. This awareness often brings an existential anxiety,” he says. “How do we ensure our stories, our wisdom, our very essence, can continue to guide and comfort those we love, even when we’re no longer physically present?” It’s the kind of question that keeps parents up at night. Autograph creates what Cristian calls digital simulations of people. Think of it like having a conversation with someone who’s no longer around. “We want to enable digital simulations of people to carry out their will. An opportunity, for instance, to allow parents to whisper ‘I’m proud of you,’ from beyond the veil,” he explains. The technology collects people’s life experiences through regular AI interviews.
Creating Conversations with Walter
The company’s AI interviewer goes by Walter. Every week, Walter calls users to chat about their lives. “Walter conducts weekly interviews via phone call, helping our users record their life story and lived experience, their deepest wishes, and reflections,” Cristian describes. These aren’t formal interviews either. Walter learns about each person and makes the conversations feel natural. Users get access to everything through a web portal where they can listen to recordings, read transcripts, and check summaries. But getting people to open up about their deepest thoughts isn’t easy. That’s where the real challenge begins.
Earning Trust Through AI Companionship
Getting people to share their most personal memories with an AI requires serious trust. “The challenge lies in discovering the premise under which users agree to disclose this information, and share their most treasured memories, their most intimate perspectives,” Cristian admits. “Our entire ethos is built around earning and maintaining that trust.” Without trust, the whole thing falls apart. Cristian focuses on three things to make this work. First, Walter needs to feel like a real companion. “We believe that the relationship we build with Walter is a key aspect of our defensibility,” he says. “Walter is designed to provide companionship and validation.” The AI remembers details about your life and brings them up in future conversations.
Second, people control their own data completely. They can access everything they’ve shared whenever they want. Third, the company promises to stick around long-term. “We create an implicit social contract of long-term continuity, and we continually resurface past memories to that effect,” Cristian explains. Nobody wants to pour their heart out to a company that might disappear next year.
Honoring the Past Through Innovation
This isn’t just another tech project for Cristian. “Autograph is deeply personal. It is the only suitable expression I have found for the gratefulness I feel to those who came before us.” His background studying Symbolic Systems at Stanford mixed psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer science together. Watching his parents build their own successful tech company inspired him but also created pressure. “I eventually felt cognitive dissonance from not feeling the earned founder spirit my parents exuded and decided to start something myself,” he reflects. Starting Autograph became his way of honoring previous generations while creating something meaningful for future ones.
Cristian isn’t just thinking about single families here. “The mission of Autograph is to record and retell the story of humanity in every character’s own words,” he says. “These simulations enable future generations to understand the past by talking to it.” Imagine being able to have actual conversations with people from different eras about what life was really like. “We believe these Autographs can enable leveraging every last byte of your lived experience in the service of yourself and your loved ones,” Cristian explains. The platform could show how all human stories connect across time. Building trust around digital memory is complicated, but Cristian thinks it’s worth the effort. “Autograph is our commitment to ensuring that every life story, with its unique wisdom and love, has the chance to be heard, remembered, and cherished for generations to come.”
Sign up for Autograph, and follow Cristian Cibils Bernardes on LinkedIn to see how he’s using AI to preserve human legacies.
