“Immortality” startup Eternos has rebranded as Urae.ai, pivoting from being a legacy service to a personal AI platform. Founder Robert LoCasio had launched Eternos in 2024, as a way for people to preserve their voice and life story for loved ones after death.
The startup gained significant attention after its first client, the terminally ill Michael Bommer, revealed how he worked with Eternos to create a digital replica of himself after spending 25 hours talking to Eternos about his life, interests, and worldview.
LoCasio decided to pivot after he discovered most people interested in Eternos were not preparing for death — rather they are looking for something more immediate. This led to a complete rebranding, with the company renaming itself to Urae.ai, and announced $10.3 million in seed funding led by Mayfield and Boldstart Ventures.
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“I started to realize that the big models, they’re taking our datasets, and they’re getting smarter because of us,” LoCascio told TechCrunch. “We don’t have to take that path. You own the model, and you can share it and monetize it.” The vision for Uare.ai is to be a scaling tool for creators and professionals. Since the personal AI models hold the individual’s full expertise, a digital replica can be put to work to generate content, handle customer interactions, and even execute projects.
Eternos had developed the Human Life Model (HLM) — a framework that uses only an individual’s data, rather than general LLM data, to capture their unique values, life story, and decision-making traits. Once Uare.ai’s platform launches, people will be able to start training their HLMs by responding to Uare.ai questions about their lives using text, voice, and even video.
“The first part is getting a human life story. Where’d you come from? Tell me a story about your childhood. What’s a crossroad in your life when you were younger?” LoCascio said.
The platform then asks the person to submit additional information about their life. “We blend the facts with this human life story, and that gives us your model,” LoCascio said.
LoCascio also clarified that unlike the Character.ai and other chatbots, Uare.ai’s model won’t turn to general LLMs to fill the gaps about anything that’s not in HLM. “Our AIs will say, I don’t know if they can’t answer the question,” LoCascio said.
The company plans on generating revenue through subscription fees, or to take a share of the revenue generated by customers who earn income from their digital twins.
Sequoia-backed Delphi is another startup developing personal AIs. This startup has attracted people with huge followings, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to Navin Chadda, managing partner at Mayfield, Uare.ai stands out from competitors because it targets individual professionals like CPAs.