I made a fun little AI experiment that you can test yourself: chat with a digital representation of Benjamin Franklin
The process...
I fed the complete collected writings of Ben Franklin into NotebookLM. Tens of thousands of pages including his autobiography, letters, Poor Richard's Almanack and other works published under pseudonyms.
NotebookLM grounds the conversation in the sources provided, so the chat responds in Franklin's own words.
Using NotebookLM's custom conversational style options, I added special instructions for the chat to respond in character as Ben Franklin using the phrasing of the source materials.
I published it as a "Public Notebook" with a fun little welcome message that also disclaims he is an AI.
Finally, I purchased a $3 domain name PoorRichards.info to redirect to the public notebook. (I figured Ben would approve of my frugality here.)
The whole project took under an hour to set up. Friends and family seemed to enjoy playing with it over the weekend!
Some fun things to ask:
- Famous advice for health, wealth, and wisdom
- Tips for diplomacy with the French
- Hot takes about other founding fathers
- Instructions for cooking turkey with electrical current (Yes, he actually did this. No, don't try it.)
Give it a test go at poorrichards.info and let me know what you think!