What a twin is
A twin is an AI video and voice model of a real coach. It has the coach's face, voice, and coaching method, and it can hold a live conversation. It is not the coach and it is not a human. Every twin is labelled as an AI twin, is disclosed before a session starts, and will tell you it is AI if you ask.
How it works
The twin is powered by our AI providers, Tavus and OpenAI. Tavus creates and runs the live video and the coach's face/voice model; OpenAI runs the conversation and transcription. Sessions are recorded and transcribed so the coach can follow up and the twin can remember returning clients.
The coach's consent (biometric basis)
A twin is only ever made of the coach themselves, and only with their explicit, written consent. Before we build a twin, the coach:
- Records a consent video — live in the browser, reading a fixed statement that names Understudy and our AI providers and covers creating and operating an AI likeness, plus a passcode shown on screen at record time so the consent can't be faked or reused.
- Signs a separate biometric consent — face and voice models are biometric and sensitive data. That consent is unbundled from our general terms: agreeing to the terms is not the same as agreeing to biometric processing. This is the basis required under Illinois BIPA, GDPR Article 9 (explicit consent for special-category data), and the Australian Privacy Act (sensitive information).
- Grants a specific licence — for creating and operating their twin only, revocable at any time, with deletion on exit.
Visitors are told before every session
Before you talk to a twin you see a disclosure that names the twin as AI, tells you the session is recorded and transcribed and shared with the coach, and names the AI providers processing it (Tavus and OpenAI). You click to consent before anything starts. We never build a voiceprint of a visitor.
Withdrawing consent
A coach can revoke consent at any time. The twin is deactivated immediately and the footage and models are deleted at our platform and our AI providers within our stated window. See our Privacy Policy for how deletion and export work.