Travis Cloyd on Digital Fame: Key Insights into AI, XR, and the Future of Human Legacy

This week on The Immergence Show, we were thrilled to host Travis Cloyd, a global futurist, professor, producer, investor, entrepreneur, global blockchain business ambassador, and tech explorer. He is a recognized voice in immersive storytelling and transformative technologies. Travis shared profound insights into the ethics of digital fame, the recreation of historical figures through AI and XR, and the evolving landscape of digital identity.

This article distills the key educational takeaways and pivotal insights from our discussion. While we explore the core concepts here, to truly grasp the depth of Cloyd's vision, including his candid take on how AI truly influences human performance in production today, the full video interview is a must-watch.

📺 Watch the Full Interview with Travis Cloyd on YouTube or LinkedIn.

Key Themes Explored

Resurrecting Legacies: The Art and Ethics of Synthetic Media

Cloyd, as CEO of worldwide XR, President of VueXR, and CTO of CMG Worldwide, is at the forefront of bringing historical icons like Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, and James Dean back into public consciousness through synthetic media. He emphasizes that this intricate process goes beyond mere technical recreation, deeply involving the families and estates of these figures to ensure ethical representation and alignment with their legacy. Cloyd's approach prioritizes the intent of the rights holders, determining the appropriate technological depth for each project, from voice synthesis for a recognizable figure like Maya Angelou to detailed facial replication for James Dean. This collaborative effort ensures that new content honors the original legacy while leveraging cutting-edge AI and XR technologies.

Key Insight: "I don't believe that I'm the right shepherd for certain stories, and I believe that the families and the estates and those that protect the best interest of those brands and those icons and those legends of the past should be at the dinner table."

The production of these digital likenesses is a complex undertaking, often requiring a vast team of specialists. Cloyd detailed how projects can involve numerous individuals focusing on various aspects, from body and face doubles to intricate cloth and hair simulation, demonstrating that AI, while powerful, is a tool that augments, rather than replaces, human creativity and expertise in these large-scale endeavors. He stressed that currently, AI doesn't simply "flip a switch" to produce a full performance, and for the foreseeable future, dozens of new jobs are created for every human performance digitized.

Key Insight: "I mean, maybe down the road, Al is going to get to a point where it does replace real, physical performance, but it's just not there for me right now, as somebody who's in the trenches, using them daily, we're still using a lot of individual people."

The Generative AI Revolution: Tools, Challenges, and Ethical Responsibility

Cloyd embraces the generative AI boom, viewing it as a diverse set of tools, akin to an expanded palette of colors for creators. While acknowledging AI's immense potential for creative content and social media, he remains pragmatic about its current limitations for full-scale, nuanced performances that require the depth of real human input. He highlights that despite the rapid evolution and massive investment in AI, challenges remain in distribution, monetization, and making content stand out in an increasingly saturated digital landscape.

Key Insight: "I think I'm kind of a half glass full kind of person, and I look at Al as a lot of different tools to utilize based on the program that you're creating. I kind of think of it like paint."

The ethical considerations surrounding digital identity and AI are paramount for Cloyd. He strongly advocates for individuals and estates to retain full ownership of their digital twins and likenesses, rejecting models where third parties could control these assets. For Cloyd, responsible use of immersive tools, particularly with historical figures, hinges on transparency and the explicit consent of rights holders and families, ensuring that the technology serves to enhance, rather than exploit, legacies. He believes ethical governance should primarily stem from internal corporate culture and transparency, pushing for platforms to implement policies that mandate consent from legal teams and rights holders for content featuring personal likenesses.

Key Insight: "I am for personally owned digital twins, 100% I do believe that the owner of the digital asset should be whomever is the estate holder or the individual whose name, image and likeness is being used."

Transforming Education and Storytelling with XR and AI

Cloyd is deeply involved in shaping the next generation of creative technologists through his roles as Professor and Program Director at Florida International University (FIU) and CalArts. His educational philosophy centers on real-world, mission-critical projects, immersing students in current challenges and opportunities within the immersive technology space. A notable success story is the Dr. Maya Angelou experience, where students collaborated with the estate to spatial storytell, utilizing AR to create an immersive digital museum that allowed users to experience her poetry and wisdom in a new, engaging way. This project exemplified how immersive technologies can enhance retention and empathy in education by enabling interactive and experiential learning.

Key Insight: "My focus is on more, like I said, bringing students into real world, real life programs put them in the trenches, have them play with the tools in real time to create mission critical content."

Cloyd also discussed VueXR, a no-code platform he presides over, which he describes as "YouTube for 3D."  This platform is designed to empower 3D content creators, allowing them to publish and distribute immersive experiences in physical space, geotagging content, and enabling audiences to engage and share 3D assets seamlessly. It addresses the current challenges of 3D content distribution, providing a vital tool for creators to monetize and engage audiences beyond traditional 2D screens.

Key Insight: "We believe there's a big ecosystem of 3d content creators that need to think about what happens next once they've created it."

Looking Ahead: Travis Cloyd's Vision for Spatial Computing and Digital Twins

Cloyd is most excited for the future of spatial computing, where digital experiences seamlessly overlay physical space, moving beyond the limitations of screens. He envisions a future where personalized digital twins, enhanced by AI, offer bespoke experiences, from interactive advertisements to engaging educational content, accessible through advanced wearables. This shift promises to revolutionize how brands engage with consumers, moving from passive metrics like clicks and likes to more profound indicators of engagement, such as scan rates and duration of interaction within immersive environments. This technological leap is also reigniting the value of intellectual property rights for deceased personalities, creating new avenues for their legacies to thrive in interactive, spatial mediums, reversing a long-standing trend of declining value. For Cloyd's full, unfiltered predictions on where spatial computing and digital identity are heading – including some truly eye-opening scenarios discussed off-the-cuff – the complete Immergence Show episode is unmissable.

Dive Deeper into the Full Experience

This article provides a strategic overview, but the magic is in the details! To hear Travis Cloyd share his step-by-step advice for navigating the complex legal landscape of digital likeness and his unmissable insights on AI's ability to truly replicate emotional depth in performance, and to truly absorb their expertise:

📺 Watch the complete interview on YouTube or LinkedIn.

About Your Host & The Immergence Show

Nico Fara is a Business Strategist, Product Marketer, and passionate Community Builder specializing in the vibrant intersection of AI, Gaming, XR, Fashion, and Consumer Tech. With a talent for translating visionary tech into compelling product strategies and fostering thriving, engaged communities, Nico empowers brands to connect authentically with their audiences and drive impactful growth. Explore Nico's insights further by visiting her website or connect on LinkedIn.

About The Immergence Show: Get your weekly dose of community and cutting-edge insights on The Immergence Show, a thriving live community event where innovation in AI, XR, Web3, Gaming, and Retail-Tech meets a deeply engaged global community. We host interactive discussions with industry pioneers, ensuring our audience of creative technologists, entrepreneurs, and brand executives leaves with fresh perspectives and actionable knowledge. Join the live experience every Tuesday at 12 PM EST on LinkedIn, catch up on all past episodes via our YouTube Channel and find more resources on our website.