{"id":822936,"date":"2026-08-23T07:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T07:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822936\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T07:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T07:54:18","slug":"harvards-699-startup-bootcamp-offers-ai-avatars-of-its-instructors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822936\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard\u2019s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Harvard Business School seeks to expand its reach, it\u2019s leaning on AI avatars to provide individual feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These avatars were created by a startup called HeyGen and are included in the eight-week, $699 HBS Foundry bootcamp for entrepreneurs. The program offers live sessions with instructors every week, but the AI avatars are the ones providing feedback during practice pitches and board meetings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New York Times reporter Sarah Kessler <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/22\/business\/dealbook\/harvard-ai-faculty.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\" target=\"_blank\">actually tried this out herself<\/a> by pitching an AI-generated copy of Flybridge Capital co-founder Jeff Bussgang. Apparently, both the real Bussgang and his simulacra were unimpressed by her plan to build \u201cUber for bananas,\u201d but Kessler said the virtual version offered a noticeably frozen smile during her pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Project director Katharina Rings said she initially envisioned the AI component as something closer to a chatbot. However, after HBS released a trial version, students said they wanted a more guided experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while some college students <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/05\/17\/if-youre-giving-a-commencement-speech-in-2026-maybe-dont-mention-ai\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">haven\u2019t been shy about expressing their negative feelings towards AI<\/a>, Foundry participants told Kessler they like the avatars. As for Bussgang, he acknowledged his digital copy is a little \u201ccreepy,\u201d but he said, \u201cMy students love it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Harvard Business School seeks to expand its reach, it\u2019s leaning on AI avatars to provide individual feedback.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,129765],"class_list":["post-822936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-harvard-business-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}