Welcome to the Faith Based Business Podcast with your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

On this podcast, we interview fellow entrepreneurs who are willing to share their stories, their trials, and their triumphs in business, all in an effort to help you avoid the same obstacles and to achieve success faster.

But at all times, continue to rely on our faith to see us through to victory.

Now with today's guest, here is your host, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

Hello, everyone, everywhere.

Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.

Welcome to the Faith Based Business podcast.

We are so blessed that you are joining us today.

Imagine with me being able to share your life story with future generations, your voice, your memories, your wisdom, long after you're gone.

I mean, what if your loved ones could sit down and have a conversation with you years from now, hearing your thoughts and advice just as if you were sitting right there in the living room with them?

Today, we are diving into a fascinating new frontier where technology meets legacy.

Amen.

And I'm excited to be sharing with you this extraordinary concept, preserving your legacy in a way that really allows future generations to interact with your life story.

Whether it's leaving messages for milestone events, you know, the, the wedding of your grandson or whatever, or sharing life lessons with, with the great grandkids.

I mean, even hosting, believe it or not, your own funeral celebration.

Technology is making it possible for your voice to live on in meaningful ways.

And the ability of AI powered storytelling, really, folks, is changing the way we think about legacy and connection and remembrance and all that.

My guest today is Steven Endicott and he is at the forefront of this innovation and you're going to want to hear what he has to say.

This is some exciting stuff.

Amen.

Stephen is the co founder of Life's Echo, a groundbreaking platform that allows users to document their lives through AI driven interviews, preserving their stories, creating an interactive experience for loved ones that'll be available long after, you know, we've passed on.

Amen.

Scott and his team, they, they are revolutionizing how we leave our mark on the world.

And I'm excited to learn more about the inspiration behind Life's Echo and where it's headed next.

With that being said, help me.

Welcome to the program Stephen Endicott.

Steven, it is a blessing to have you on the program today.

I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us.

Thank you for having me.

I think we've got an interesting discussion today.

I think most people won't even imagine where we've come in the last six months with technology.

So this project is two to three months old.

The business platform behind it is only been going for a year.

So the business platform behind it is a business called Neural Voice.

Couple of young guys came to me, wanted backing, because the key thing in the AI world, you've got all this young talent.

I don't know how to run a business.

They don't know how to create concepts.

So I'm an experienced businessman, semi retired, made my money giving back by helping Newell Voice.

And then out of that came an opportunity for us to create a new business.

So, in a nutshell, can you believe that as we talk, every single word is translated, put into writing, injected into a large language model, goes to a specific database to see if you've got any information related to that, calls about an answer and talks back to you in a human voice, all in 0.83 seconds faster than a human being.

We've had to slow it down.

We've had to slow it down.

So we proved this technology because I'm a bit of a revolutionary at heart.

We first proved this technology on a project called AI Steed.

So I was the first AI candidate in the UK or the world, I'm told to stand for a senior political position, an MP in the uk.

And what I said is, all these politicians, they come around every four years, they knock on doors, they disturb you and they tell you a load of rubbish and disappear.

And they don't do what you tell them.

So I wanted to create a situation where we created a 24.

7 available aiction.

You could go to a website and you just talk to me in my AI voice about my political views and it had a discussion with you.

And if it didn't have a view, it would go off to the Internet, research it and come back having a discussion.

So that was a way of engaging with voters and documenting my political views.

I was then out with my wife, who says, you egotistical.

Yeah.

Documented all your political views.

Why don't you go with a whole hog and document your whole life?

And I think she was joking, but I took it seriously.

I went, what a great idea.

So what we do is we create an AI character called AI Sarah.

And you don't have to know anything about AI.

Have you got one of those?

Have you got a finger?

Can you press a button?

And I'll demonstrate it later in the call.

Yeah.

It's so easy.

And an AI Sarah will interview you from the comfort of your own home.

You sat on your bum on your couch.

Yeah.

And it will talk to you conversationally about your life.

So the first like segment is Early Life and it has a thousand questions, but it doesn't just list off questions, it has a conversation with you.

You feel like you're talking to a real person.

So it's easy to actually chat about your early life and create an autobiography of your early life.

So we do that, you read the autobiography, you fact check it, you add anything you've missed, you change it about and then you do the other four segments.

So we have broadly five hours recorded and we create you an autobiography of your entire life in writing.

Yeah, but then we go a step further.

Why would we stop with writing?

Who wants to read 45 pages to find out what they want?

So we turn it into a large language model that talks either in your voice or an actor's voice or third party, depending.

Whatever you're comfortable with.

Yeah, so mine talks in my voice and anybody can ask me any question about my life and it's got this big database and it has a conversation with them.

So imagine your future generations, you said, yeah, they can just chat to you about why did you do this?

What do you think about that?

What do you think about this?

Quite revolutionary, isn't it?

That is awesome, awesome, awesome.

And I mean just the, you know, I mean I was at one point in time, I was in life insurance sales for like seven years, had my own agency and all that.

And one of the things I created was one of these things, you know, when you're left behind, you know, what would you like people to know?

And they had to write it all out and type it and, you know, all this stuff, you know, and this makes it so much easier.

And that's the point.

It shockingly so I always say to people, I know quite a bit about my parents, obviously I know something about my grandparents and my granddad's time in the war.

I know nothing about their parents, my great grandparents.

So basically you are wiped from the face of the earth after two generations, you disappear.

And we all have different religions and different beliefs about where you go next and whatever.

But isn't it nice to leave a legacy in echo that can talk to future generations?

Because we know people interest in genealogy, we know they look up their family chart and they can see the names of their great grandparents.

How about just talking to them and asking them what they did in the lives?

For example, me, what made you stand as the first AIMP in Nutter?

And I'll probably go, yeah, because I'm a bit mad.

But basically it's really easy and simple to use Technology, it's really revolutionary.

It is primarily a genealogical tool for future generations.

But.

And here's where the controversial twist comes in.

So we have an ethics committee, because one of the things when you're doing this sort of technology, I'm technology, so I'm a marketeer.

You got to make sure you have experts in death grieving so you don't do harm.

So we've got a lady called Janet Dumfry, who's a published author about the grieving process, about palliative care.

We've got a director of a palliative care home.

We've got doctors, we've got funeral care people, and we wanted to use them.

And everything we do, we bounce around and say, yeah, is this good?

Is this bad?

And one of the things that they came up to us and said, do you realize in the UK, 28% of creations are now direct cremations, where the body's taken from the hospital to the crematorium, cremated, and you get your ashes back.

What's happened to the funeral?

What's happened to that?

Closure experience.

What's happened to that?

Yes, you.

You live, you die.

But what about the people left?

How are they impacted?

So we believe we can also use these AI tools to allow you to take more control over your own funeral.

Why not?

So we call it the Last word, where you can just record what you want to say to people at your funeral.

They can chat to you about your life at your funeral.

So rather than just have a really expensive funeral, why not just go to the local pub, the local, you know, public space, you hire it, and have your own funeral celebration the way you want to have it.

Amen.

Amen.

That's awesome.

That is awesome.

And you know when.

When you were first approached about this project, what were your thoughts when you initial thought?

Approach myself, remember?

So this is not like somebody coming to me with the idea.

This is sitting around the table going, you could do this because I've already done it with.

So the only difference between this and AIC the politician is it never goes off to the Internet.

If it doesn't know something in your database of information, it can't make it up.

It just tells them, I don't know that.

But here's some fascinating stuff.

If you recall five hours of conversation and it's documented, the AI can pick up your personality.

So not only does it talk in your voice, it.

It sort of mimics your personality.

And that's even scary.

Should we have a quick demo?

If you allow me to share, I Can actually, we can demo this.

All right, give me a second.

Those listening by audio, you'll have to go to the video and check this out here.

Yeah, but they can hear it.

So let me just go to my L Echo page.

So it's just a web page.

Yeah, nothing complicated.

You can do it on your phone.

Apart from when you can't get the zoom recall message to move, that's not a good technical start, is it?

I'll open up Lyseco again on another tab so I can actually see it echo.

Okay.

So it's designed to be incredibly simple.

So I want to record hey Lies Echo.

So I go down and it opens up.

AI Sarah, new interviewer.

And I'll let the start.

Takes a couple of seconds, probably taking.

A few extra because we're on zoom.

So.

Yeah, good point.

Ah no, because I'm not on the WI fi.

Sorry, I've dropped off my.

There's technology at work, folks.

We're experiencing WI fi difficulties.

Internet connection is unstable.

It's telling me any typical.

When you want to demonstrate something, of course.

So I say is technology about this?

When, when you were doing your, you know, MP AI and what was the, what was the reception on that as far as, you know, other members of parliament and all that good stuff.

Okay, so a bit like this product, a bit Marmite.

So I went around Brighton traditional canvassing, handing out leaflets, talking about AI Steve and people thought I was a nutter and tried to run a model.

When you actually stopped and they had a conversation, you explained it's about Democracy being available 247 only doing what they say, allowing them to listen to my policies, allowing them to input to the policies with human beings creating the policies.

They really liked it.

And they also liked that we had validators, which is commuters going up to and down to London that could actually just vote on it.

So they don't create the policies, they weren't involved in it.

They could just vote and say, right, okay, yeah, I like this policy or I don't like this policy.

So then we clarified whether it's the common man or the common lady.

And we didn't have any left wing or white ring views and we created a lot of really powerful policies.

But the difference there, as I said, it could go off the Internet where it can't hear because we're on zoom and it's sucking up all the bandwidth.

I can't demo.

Yeah, but basically the point is it's conversational.

So it's a very soft lady voice lady that talks to you and yes, she's got a load of questions to get through, but she just has a chat with you and it documents it and that puts into the autobiography.

The autobiography is checked, then you create the Life Echo and then Life Echo can talk to anybody, anytime.

So I've made my public, whereas the vast majority of people won't.

95 of the people we think will only allow this to be used by the future generations or their relatives.

And again, you think about new concepts.

We have a death time guarantee, so you have a lifetime guarantee that says the product will last as long as lasting due.

But it's a bit rubbish for this because you're dead when we're using it.

So we had to think through, for example, how many years we'll guarantee that that recording will be made accessible.

So we've gone with 100 years.

100 years.

Because the storage cost of data that only costs about 15 pound.

It's so deep, your data.

So we're creating a trust fund outside of our business that we put X amount of our profits into our revenue into, so that if we did go out of business, it's still there.

It's not like the cryo chambers where they go bust and we're bought.

You still in one.

It's like what you do with it.

You need executors.

It's a bit like having a lifetime power of attorney.

In the UK we call it where somebody, if you get infirm or mentally ill, et cetera, somebody can take over your, your finances, etc.

With this.

Once you be called to the Echo while you're live, your complete control, you can wipe it, you can have it given back, you can delete it anytime you're live.

What happens when you're dead?

So we've had to appoint an executor and a deputy executor and they will follow your wishes.

They can't edit your life echo apart from correctional factual corrections, but they can go, right, we want to delete it.

Yeah.

We don't think it's doing.

We think it's hurting the family, whatever.

So, yeah, it's like in reality, you disappointed.

You've got to think about these things because we've got really powerful technology here and we've got to make sure it doesn't do harm.

Another one, for example, the ethics committee came up with is saying you've got to avoid relatively bereaved people becoming overdependent on talking to this talk.

So you can only talk one hour time a day without taking a break.

So we don't tell people how to use it.

But we're putting in some common sense safety measures to make sure that people don't misuse it as much as we can.

For those left behind, what is the experience like when they engage with their loved ones?

Life echo.

I mean, how interactive, how dynamic can these conversations become?

Ridiculously doc dynamic.

So again, it's.

How do you.

So the basic product is just an echo of your life.

Okay.

And in that echo, you can upload all your pictures and you get an autobiography.

And that's the basic product.

If you want to take some of the supplementary products that we're developing, for example, my political views are.

And I want to comment on future events.

You can comment on things that haven't occurred in your lifetime after you're dead, based on your political views.

You can talk about your sports team after you've gone.

In your political view, you can tell people what to do, as you said, on their wedding day, you can call.

This is the message I want to call on their wedding day.

But it takes into context they marry a girl, they marrying a bloke.

Because, you know, some of these things might change in the future.

Yeah.

So it's really interesting technology, it's really sophisticated technology, but it's not downloading you, it's not making you immortal.

This is merely an echo.

It's not you.

It's just an echo of your faults and your life.

Amen.

What happens if the echo is asked something that wasn't prompted during the interviews with AI Sarah?

It has to say, I don't know.

It has.

You can't make stuff up.

This is your life story.

These are your memories.

Yeah.

Stuff that Sarah doesn't ask.

I'll give you one thing that we've had to add we didn't think of.

Right.

So I recorded my life's echo and somebody said, when did you die, Steve?

Oh, yeah, they are going to ask that, aren't they?

And how do we get that information when they're already dead?

So we've had to add it back into responsibility of the executor to be called and notify if they died so we can record it as part of the life echo.

You just don't think about these things.

And we're a new business, but we're trying not to.

Not to do great harm.

We're trying to be responsible.

It's a powerful technology.

I think it's fun.

So for 499, which is broadly $600, you can have a personal autobiography, the same as a rich and famous person does with all your pictures and all your autobiography and record it.

And we think that's a giftable price.

So we want kids to give it to their parents on their 60th, their 70th, their 80th, at Christmas, at New Year, at Thanksgiving.

Yeah.

And we think it's a product you can also buy.

But again, we know we're going to make money, but we're trying to use that money to do some good.

So Ghetto Ethics committee have come up and we've pledged to give 5% of our licenses to people who need them, for example, people going from assisted dying.

So we just got a new build in the UK going for at the moment, you might have heard about it, where you're allowed to kill yourself, bit like they do in Switzerland.

This is radical for the uk.

Yeah.

But what an awful experience, both for the person and the family.

If you're that ill that you want to end your life and it takes about three months to get permission.

What a great thing to be able to record your life in that period and leave the legacy the people left behind.

And we're going to give those licenses away free because if you've had that bad luck, you need a break.

Yeah.

And we're also talking to dementia.

I lost my mum to dementia way before this technology was built.

I loved it.

If my mum could have recorded herself before it got too late, she would have talked to herself.

Literally talked to herself on the Echo and loved it.

Has anybody ever reported that it felt like, creepy or anything like that?

Absolutely.

All the press, the thing they say, they call me a ghostwriter.

They say it's creepy, it's weird.

And partly they're right.

This is not a product for everybody.

Yeah.

We think this is probably one in ten, maybe we liked it.

And nine go, oh, no, I don't want to do that.

But we don't know.

And I think it will vary by age and I think it will vary by country.

I think America is probably more up for it and Britain is, because we're a bit stubby shirted over here.

Well, when.

When the.

The generations to come come back to view our Echo, is it our image or is an AI image or how is this.

It's completely up to you at the moment because we think it's creepy.

We're keeping it to your image and we're not.

We're not encouraging you to create an AR avatar and all this stuff with no holograms, none of stuff like that.

We're just keeping it to a Straightforward image of you they see when you're speaking, but then they've got access all the photos and memory straight underneath.

They can be scrolling through the photos while they're chatting to you.

It can be outputted into books.

Yeah.

Etc.

So there's a lot of flexibility over it.

We're trying to not make it too real because you got to remind people this is not real, this is just an echo.

You're not.

It sounds like you're talking to the real person and therefore you've got to mitigate that a little bit by saying, no, you're talking to their life echo.

Yeah.

Amen.

I saw on your website that, that basically Catholics are saying that you're going to burn in hell for creating this.

Is that right?

I'm not sure if Catholics as a whole.

We've actually been in touch with the head of the Catholic Church, who's not given his permission but said, yeah, I don't see what the issue is.

It's a bit like when I stood.

You've got to be very careful.

When I stood to be a mp, I had death threats to AI Steve and I didn't take it seriously.

How can you threaten an AI character?

Yeah.

And I made the silly mistake of going back to that person in email saying, we're going to see if you can find the plug because that's the only way you're going to kill AI plugging him.

And he came back and said, right, I'm going to come around your house, put an axe through your head and that through your computer.

And he knew my address.

You don't mess with nutters, you leave them out there.

So, yes, we've had a threat for one particular Catholic.

It came on, said, I'm a devout Catholic.

You're going to burn in hell.

I hope God strikes you down immediately.

You're blasphemous and he's all against God's will.

And you go, you know what?

I'm not replying to that.

But yeah, we spoke to many, many religions, Right.

Every religion has a different view of what you do after death.

The Muslim religion believes it's only, you know, life is on earth is only a temporary part in the rule.

Life is after you die.

We're not interfering with any of that.

We're just leaving a.

A genealogical tool, a life echo for your future generation to understand more about your life.

Nothing more complicated than that.

I suppose the stuff at funerals is a bit controversial, but when 28 of people aren't having a funeral, you can't really argue, interfere with anything, can you?

Right.

Amen.

And, you know, when we were first talking before coming on today, and then at the beginning, before we hit the recording, you know, I was telling you, but, you know, I was trying to figure out how to speak at my own funeral service.

You know, just letting every.

Know, everyone know what they meant to me.

And, and this technology here now makes it that one, available and two, easier.

But before you answer my next question, let's just put everyone's thoughts at ease here.

Pastor Bob isn't planning on having to use this ability for a little while yet.

Okay.

But you're exploring the concept of users hosting their own funeral celebrations, delivering speeches posthumously.

How do you envision this service helping families cope with loss and celebrating their loved one's life?

Okay, let's talk about the first bit.

So recording something without emotion on such an emotional topic is quite hard for a human person to do.

Even writing a speech if you're not used to writing speech is quite hard to do.

Here you just say, I broadly want to say these things.

It creates a script for you.

You edit that script, you listen to your voice giving it, job done.

The reason we think it's good is it's a closure moment.

As I said, lots of people in the UK are now having direct funerals where no actual closure event.

And we're really targeting that.

Not trying to replace traditional funerals, graveside funerals, or crematoriums.

We're just trying to say, you know what, that is wrong.

So let's create something as low cost.

Because they're only doing it because it's cheap.

Yeah.

The average funeral costs about $6,000.

The average casket that you're going to burn 10 minutes later after you see it cost you $2,000.

Yeah.

Not everybody can afford that.

So a direct funeral costs about, I guess, about a thousand dollars.

Yeah.

And Maybe you spend $500 with us to record his life echo, and then you can host your own event.

So, you know, you're probably doing it half the price of a digital funeral and having a lot more fun, at least.

Yeah, at least half the price.

So probably about 80% correct.

And we think that.

And again, because we've got the ethics committee and experts on that grieving, they believe that the, the closure moment of a funeral is actually crucial to the grieving process.

It gives that focus of accepting that that loved one is gone.

Yeah.

And if you don't have that, they believe that's highly dangerous.

So they like life's echo and want to Use it for these direct funerals.

They're a little bit more.

We're not sure compared with a normal funeral.

But hey, guys, it's a personal choice.

Yeah, I'm an egotistical.

What's it.

So I'm going to speak at my funeral.

Yeah, it sounds like you may be passing, Bob, but not everybody.

Yeah, here's an interesting one.

So we would love to host the first AI funeral.

Right.

And get it on TV and everything.

How do you get people to volunteer for that?

Because most people recorded their echo at least five years, 10 years ahead of dying.

So it's like, oh, okay.

So we've got to be very careful how you go to.

People said, oh, do you want an AI funeral?

Because you're nearly gone.

Yeah, that's true.

Five or ten years ago, this technology, it just wasn't available.

AI wouldn't hear anything like that, but hadn't even thought of it.

And now we have it because of the advent of AI and.

And as AI continues to evolve, where do you see life's echo heading in the next five to 10 years?

I mean, are there any exciting new features or expansions already on the horizon that you're working on?

Okay, so there's some expansions we're working on at the moment which are interesting.

So why are we focused on death?

Why isn't this disday digital diary autobiography that you create and carry around with you during life?

So one of our extensions is think working that out, working at how we create a digital diary.

You just talk to.

You don't have to write anything down.

And it creates yearly summaries of your life, etc, and you go, yep, that's good.

And filed away under that year so you can look back at it along with the photos.

So that's a natural extension.

It might be under a different brand.

We're thinking about creating a digital twin when you're first born because you don't remember anything about your first five years.

So why don't you get your mother to actually record you and record what you do and get some video and upload it and have it all as a digital twin for your early life.

So it's an interesting space where this is going.

Yeah.

And it's lots of other stuff.

So I'll give you a shocking thing the teams are working on.

Yeah.

Friendship AI so you can go online and you can create your own friends with their own characters, their own personalities, and you can talk to them and it remembers everything about that conversation.

The more you talk to them, the deeper the friendship grows because the more they know about you.

And then you can now offer people to talk to those friends.

And you can talk to famous people who haven't got time to talk to you.

You can talk to influencers that haven't got time to talk to you.

So the technology behind Lys Echo is going to go into a lot of different aspects of our life.

And the key thing to remember is typing is inconvenient.

So do you remember Betamax vs VHS?

The old debate about which format will work?

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

We have a Betamax generation and they're between 17 and probably 30 and they've been taught and brought up into typing.

They don't do anything apart from typing.

My kids, if I ever do a voice activating search on my phone, go, what you doing?

You took it to your phone in public, right?

What you do with a phone?

Kids.

But they don't, they type.

And if you leave a message with them, they probably don't, you know, they never leave a message back.

They just type you a message back.

So I called in the Betamax generation.

Anybody under 17 is to be brought up with voice activation because it's so much easier than typing.

Why would you bother to type where you can just talk?

Anybody over 30?

Yeah, like Elsie's going, actually this is a lot easier having to type.

Yeah, I do that.

But there's a big funny.

You talk about that because there's a person I'm working with and, and I'll leave a message, you know, through text, whatever.

And then a little while later I get this voice message back.

Like just tell me, type in it.

He'll, he'll leave this three or four minute message on audio.

You know, I got a list.

Yeah, yeah, you know, I just type it.

I'm old fashioned.

I am for typing on text because that's what I've always been brought up with, text.

Yeah, but it's just to replace people not being willing to talk on a phone and being my kids being embarrassed because I'm talking to a phone.

I just think it's obscure.

Now the Beta Master, you're going, you are dead guys.

You're the ones getting swept away.

You're the old folkies, not me.

Look, I'm modern, I can use AI.

Well, I know what we just shared has somebody out there wanting more information.

Amen.

If someone wants to reach out, find out more, ask a question, maybe invite you on a program, do an interview like this, how can they do that?

How can someone get in touch with you?

Steve?

Really easy Lyseco she just type liceco.co.uk into the browser or the easiest way to find me personally is AI Steve.

I will forever known in the Internet is a I Steve.

You type that in, you'll find the real Steve Endicott.

Sit behind, you'll find my LinkedIn, you'll find all my TV stuff and you can see if I'm worth interviewed.

Amen.

Amen.

I'll put links all this in the show notes below.

Folks, today we have now explored the incredible possibilities that life's echo offers, right?

Allowing individuals to preserve their legacy, share their wisdom, continue meaningful conversations with loved ones long after you're gonna be gone.

Whether it's capturing life stories, leaving messages for future milestones, even planning your own personalized farewell, this technology is revolutionizing really how we think about memory and connection.

I mean, I love it.

Amen.

And if you've been inspired by what you've heard today and you'd like to learn more about lifecycle, how it can help you or your loved ones created an interactive legacy to call it that, I encourage you to reach out to Steve Etikai and his team.

I mean they are ready to guide you through this process and answer any questions you may have.

Visit their website down the show notes below, connect with them directly to discover how you can start preserving your story today.

Just drop down the shows, click the links, they're right there.

Steven, this has been some absolutely fabulous technology.

I can't wait to start checking it all out.

And I do appreciate you coming on the program and sharing all about lifecycle with us today.

It's been a great conversation.

Thank you very much.

If you ever need a job as a business salesman, come and work for us because you're great.

Appreciate it.

Maybe in my life cycle.

So hey folks, that's all the time we have for today for Steven Edicot.

My son's passed about reminding you to be blessed in all that you do.

You have been listening to the Faith Based Business Podcast with Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

We appreciate you as a listener and fellow believer and want to encourage you in your entrepreneurial efforts.

These programs are designed to provide you with information that you can use in your business to achieve success faster and avoid the obstacles that try to impede your success.

All information on this podcast is for entertainment and information use.

Only.

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Until next time, be blessed in all that you do.

Sa.