Fireside Chat with Ben Relles (CEO- Make Believe)

Part of Global AI Builder Series: by The Gen Academy

Hosted by Aishwarya Srinivasan & Arvind Narayan and Ben Relles

Mon, Aug 31, 2026

4:00 PM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Building a career in AI as a non-coder
Aishwarya Srinivasan
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What you'll learn

Build AI that feels human

What Reid AI (digital twin of Reid Hoffman) reveals about identity, personality, & making digital humans feel authentic.

Go beyond the AI video demo

See what works in a demo, what breaks in a product, and what it takes to build for real.

Rethink creators + AI

Explore how interactive AI could change creativity, filmmaking, storytelling, and entertainment.

Build on shifting technology

Learn how to choose what to build when AI capabilities and models change every few months.

Why this topic matters

AI is turning video from something we watch into something we can interact with. But building great AI experiences takes more than impressive models. This fireside chat explores what Ben's company Make Believe has learned about digital humans, creativity, storytelling, and building real products as the technology rapidly evolves.

You'll learn from

Aishwarya Srinivasan & Arvind Narayan

AI Engineers | Building & Teaching @ The Gen Academy

Aishwarya Srinivasan is the co-founder of The Gen Academy and one of the world's most recognized AI educators, with a community of over 1.2 million AI professionals across social platforms. Previously, she led AI Developer Relations at Fireworks AI and spent over a decade building AI products and ecosystems at Google, Microsoft, and IBM. She holds a Master's in Data Science from Columbia University. Known for breaking down complex AI concepts with clarity and honesty, Aishwarya teaches builders how to move beyond demos and develop production-ready AI systems that solve real business problems.


Arvind Narayanamurthy is the Co-founder of The Gen Academy, Previously AI Solutions Architect at Ema, and Founder of Eikos Health. He has built and deployed enterprise AI systems across Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, and high-growth startups, leading initiatives that translated machine learning into measurable business impact. Arvind holds a Master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University. His teaching focuses on first-principles thinking, practical engineering, and helping builders design, evaluate, and deploy reliable AI systems for production.

Ben Relles

Founder and CEO of Make Believe

Ben Relles is the founder of Make Believe, an AI media lab exploring the future of interactive and personalized media. He co-created Reid AI, an interactive digital twin of LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.


Previously, he spent a decade at YouTube, where he served as Head of Innovation and Head of Unscripted Programming for YouTube Originals. An early pioneer of internet-native video, Ben created Barely Political and The Key of Awesome and co-founded Vsauce, helping shape some of YouTube’s earliest breakout formats. Today, his work sits at the intersection of AI, storytelling, creators, and the future of media.

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