Harvard Business School has launched an eight-week, AI-powered entrepreneurship programme called Foundry, priced at $699, which uses AI "clones" of some of its own professors to guide participants building start-ups. The scheme, running since April, is designed to extend Harvard's entrepreneurship teaching to aspiring founders beyond the roughly 900 MBA students the university admits each year, and has drawn attention for its unusual, and to some, unsettling use of digitally replicated faculty.

The AI avatars, including one modelled on senior lecturer Jeff Bussgang, were trained on professors' own teaching materials but can also draw on wider information when needed, and were developed with avatar company HeyGen. Harvard staff say they were surprised by how positively users responded, reportedly trusting guidance more when it appeared to come from a specific named academic, even though Bussgang himself admits the technology feels somewhat "creepy." According to the New York Times, about 45% of summer-session participants paid for the course themselves, with the rest sponsored by universities, and the programme also includes weekly live sessions with faculty, investors and experienced speakers alongside peer discussion forums.