Who should control a digital version of you: the platform that hosts it, or you? What about after you’re dead– the platform or your estate? In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the fast-emerging world of personal digital twins: AI versions of people built from voice, writing, behavior, and context. We look at what a digital twin actually is, how it differs from an avatar or clone, and why companies are increasingly selling these systems as productivity tools, communication tools, and ways to scale expertise.

From there, we dig into the harder questions: who owns a twin built from your data, whether the law is equipped to handle digital selves, and what happens when platforms, not people, hold custody of the models built from our lives. We also explore the line between helpful leverage and self-extraction, the risks of vendor lock-in, and why data portability may be essential if digital twins are going to remain human-centered rather than platform-controlled.

We then turn to the afterlife question: what happens to your data, likeness, and AI twin after death? That leads us into digital ghosts, legacy contacts, digital wills, and the growing need for clearer rules around posthumous AI. This is a conversation about identity, custody, agency, digital legacy, and whether the model of you is something you own, or something that ends up owning part of you.

Guests

• Julia Creet — Professor and leading international scholar of Cultural Memory Studies
• Natalie Monbiot — Founder, Virtual Human Economy
• Francesco Rulli — CEO, Querlo
• Dr. Randy McIntosh — Director, SFU Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology
• Dr. Elaine Kasket — Cyberpsychologist & Chartered Counselling Psychologist
• Paul Jurcys — Copyright, data-privacy and AI attorney; Co-Founder & Chief Legal Officer, Prifina; Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley School of Law

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.

What happens when you try to leave an AI that already knows you?

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore a new frontier in data portability: whether you can take your AI memory, context, and chat history with you when you switch models. What begins as a technical question quickly becomes something more personal. As AI tools learn our preferences, workflows, tone, and even our emotional patterns, leaving one model for another can feel less like switching software and more like a breakup.

We look at why this issue suddenly became urgent, how recent user migration between major AI platforms exposed the limits of portability, and what is actually at stake when your chatbot has accumulated months or years of context about you. Along the way, we explore the psychological side of AI attachment, the practical cost of losing workflow memory, and the growing push for model-agnostic tools that let users keep control of their own data. We also examine what can be exported today, what still cannot, and why friction and business incentives still make true portability difficult.

Guests

• Dr. Rachel Wood — Cyberpsychology Expert, Therapist
• Chris Riley — Executive Director, Data Transfer Initiative
• Sankari “Sanks” Nair — Co-founder, Recall
• Jack Spallone — Head of Product, Open Data Labs (Vana Network)

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.

Why is it so easy to switch banks, but so hard to move your photos, playlists, messages, or years of digital history from one platform to another?

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the foundational reasons of why data portability matters. Starting with the simple frustration of thousands of photos stuck in an old software ecosystem, we unpack the bigger issue of platform lock-in and why so much of our digital life is still difficult to move.

We look at how companies benefit when users cannot easily leave, how APIs and closed systems helped create this problem, and why privacy concerns and the race to collect data for AI have made portability even harder. We also examine what regulators in Europe and Canada are trying to do about it, why open banking stands out as a rare success story, and why the next big portability battle may involve AI memory, chat history, and personal context moving between tools.

Guests

• Peter Swire — Research Director, Cross-Border Data Forum; J.Z. Liang Chair, School of Cybersecurity & Privacy, Georgia Tech; Professor of Law and Ethics, Scheller College of Business
• Lisa Dusseault — CTO, Data Transfer Initiative
• Brad Callaghan — Associate Deputy Commissioner, Competition Bureau of Canada
• Pınar Özcan — Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Saïd Business School, Oxford University

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.