No trolling! AI Stan Lee avatar responds using decades of his real interviews, albeit with guardrails

Los Angeles Comic Con has unveiled an AI-powered avatar of Stan Lee that allows fans to interact with the late comic book legend through conversations. The 1,500-square-foot Stan Lee Experience booth features technology that draws from decades of Lee’s actual words, interviews, and writings, including his famous “Stan’s Soapbox” columns from Marvel comics between 1967 and 1980.

What you should know: The interactive Stan Lee avatar processes questions and formulates responses using a specialized large language model trained exclusively on Lee’s content.

• The technology comes from a collaboration between Proto Inc., which creates telepresence devices, and Hyperreal, a company whose CEO Remington Scott previously worked on bringing Gollum to life in “The Lord of the Rings” films.
• Unlike general AI chatbots, this system includes guardrails that prevent the avatar from answering questions outside Lee’s expertise, such as sports or politics.
• “It’s specifically Stan’s words. Red carpet interviews, everything he wrote, like Stan’s Soapbox, but with guardrails,” explains George Johnson from Hyperreal’s technical team.

How it works: The avatar appears as an interactive image rather than a true hologram, processing real-time questions from convention attendees.

• The system uses computer vision and AI processing to create what developers call an “avatar presence” or “telepresence.”
• As fans interact with it, the AI continues learning and expanding its responses based on additional Stan Lee content being fed into the model.
• The Stan Lee Universe organization is providing more material to continuously enhance the avatar’s knowledge base.

Why this matters: The project represents a new frontier for digital resurrections of deceased celebrities, with applications extending far beyond entertainment.

• Proto’s technology is HIPAA-compliant, enabling remote medical consultations where doctors and patients can interact as if physically present.
• The devices can beam live people across distances for classrooms, museums, laboratories, and retail environments.
• “Any Proto device can have any piece of content in it, and we also beam people in live,” says David Nussbaum, Proto’s founder.

What they’re saying: Comic Con organizers emphasize preserving Lee’s legacy of fan interaction rather than creating a commercial gimmick.

• “What was such a joy was watching him interact with fans. Old fans and then people that were bringing their 8-year-old kid who had just read their first Spider-Man comic book,” said Chris DeMoulin, CEO of L.A. Comic Con parent company Comikaze Entertainment.
• “This avatar, to us, is an entry point into the world of storytelling that he created. We wanted to create something which can be part of maintaining and expanding on that legacy.”

The fine print: The AI occasionally goes off-script as it learns, demonstrating both the technology’s adaptive capabilities and its unpredictability.

• After repeated questions about Coca-Cola, the avatar evolved from giving generic responses to offering a thoughtful answer ending with: “Who wouldn’t want to be in business with the company that’s been quenching thirsts for a hundred years?”
• Access to the Stan Lee Experience costs $15 plus service fees, with tickets available through the L.A. Comic Con website.
• The convention runs through Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center.