Running Rory Sutherland as a Live AI Persona at MADFest
Watch Yepic run Rory Sutherland as a live AI persona at MADFest.
From smartphone footage to a live persona
The source footage was captured on a smartphone just two days before the event. That deliberately lightweight production setup is an important part of the story: Yepic could move from an accessible real-world capture to an event-ready, recognisable persona under an exceptionally short deadline.
Behind the scenes: Rory’s source performance being filmed on a smartphone before the MADFest activation.
A persona, not a chatbot
Rory’s value is not a database of facts. It is his wit, worldview and ability to challenge the premise of a question. The experience therefore had to preserve the qualities audiences recognise while still operating as a responsive live system.
What Yepic built
- A recognisable real-time visual and vocal likeness.
- Persona design informed by Rory’s public talks and distinctive worldview.
- A conversational role built for challenge, humour and follow-up questions.
- A live-event runtime capable of responding in front of an audience.
- An experience MADFest could programme as content, not merely demonstrate as technology.
What the event proved
A recognisable person can become an interactive audience format: part keynote, part interview, part entertainment and entirely responsive to the room. The same runtime can support public figures, experts, founders, presenters and brand personalities, with consent, governance and disclosure designed into the deployment.
