In early 2024, an AI version of Steve Harvey began circulating on YouTube, telling viewers they could claim $6,400 in free government money. The voice was synthetic, the footage stitched together from his real appearances, and the benefit didn’t exist. One video amassed more than 18 million views. Harvey spent much of the next two years chasing his own digital clones—partnering with an AI company to remove them, warning that scams using his likeness had reached an all-time high and arguing that the very trust he’d built over decades had become his greatest vulnerability.
By July 2026, Harvey decided to put that same technology to work. Turnout named him its first chief advocate officer, a role created specifically for him. The $400 million startup’s freemium AI platform helps Americans identify government benefits they may qualify for. In his view, AI is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. The distinction lies in the intentions of the people building with it—and the problems they choose to solve.
“It’s tough when you’re famous. It’s a constant love-hate relationship because I’m the victim of people using AI,” Harvey tells me. “They’ve got me in fake ads and fake speeches using my voice and face. But the technology is absolutely amazing. To be able to tap into it and get information as quickly and as thoroughly as AI does—it’s incredible.”
The TV and entertainment icon launched Steve Harvey Global in 2017 to house his ventures, and its investment arm, Harvey Ventures, focuses on technology, education and entertainment. The disclosed portfolio runs to Coinbase, Stripe, SpaceX, SoFi, DiDi and Acorns, with roughly half his holdings in startups. In March 2025, he signed with Vermillio, an AI licensing and protection platform whose TraceID system scans the internet and generative AI models for unauthorized uses of his name, image and likeness. Harvey said at the time that his biggest concern was the people being deceived. He described the partnership as embracing AI “the right way—with consent and control.”
Many of those scams centered on government benefits—the same space Turnout now operates in legitimately, and spread most aggressively through economically vulnerable communities.
Unlike a traditional benefits finder, the startup positions itself as a consumer advocacy company, and that distinction defines its business. Founder and CEO Itai Hirsch started Turnout roughly 18 months ago in San Diego. It now runs four service verticals: Social Security disability, veterans benefits, healthcare advocacy and education advocacy, the last of which helps families secure IEP and 504 accommodations from school districts. In each case, a client hands the platform a problem, and its agentic AI takes it from intake to resolution—collecting records, preparing filings and bringing in a licensed advocate whenever required.
“We think that most systems are bigger than the individual and almost designed against them in a way. Maybe not intentionally, but there’s bureaucracy, the UX is outdated, there are a lot of laws and rules to follow,” Hirsch says. “It kind of makes the experience almost unbearable to go and handle on your own.”
The company raised $21 million in seed funding in September 2025 and followed with a $35 million Series A this June at a $400 million post-money valuation. Hirsch asserts Turnout has helped more than 10,000 people with Social Security disability claims alone. The company’s broader ambition, he shared, is to become the world’s largest consumer advocacy platform, starting in the U.S..
Inside Turnout’s AI Advocacy Machine
Hirsch says Turnout was never designed to replace human advocates. Instead, the company relies on its agentic AI engine, Jake, to handle as much as 90% of the administrative work behind each case while leaving legal strategy, judgment, and advocacy to licensed professionals. In Social Security disability claims, AI manages everything from intake to case preparation before handing off to a licensed advocate for the hearing.
Radar, another AI tool launched alongside Harvey’s appointment, sits at the front of all of it, functioning as a triage layer — a way for someone who arrived looking for one thing to discover what else the government owes them. Users spend about three minutes answering a series of plain-language questions. Radar then scans across 14 federal and state programs to identify benefits users may qualify for, from disability and healthcare to food assistance and tax credits.
The hard part isn’t the questionnaire. Every state has different eligibility rules, Hirsch says, and “in many cases, it actually goes down to the local city or county level.” The AI works through those variations by applying program-specific logic behind the scenes.
The current product is only a starting point. “We’re enhancing this product to become more and more surgical and accurate for everyone—really tailored, to the dollar,” he says. To get there, Turnout has built multiple quality-control layers. Jake’s work is reviewed by what Hirsch describes as an AI orchestration layer that continuously checks its outputs through reinforcement learning, while human advocates conduct daily spot checks and feed corrections back into the system.
Turnout currently offers full advocacy services for four of the 14 programs it scans. For the rest—including SNAP, WIC, LIHEAP and several tax credits—Radar provides resources and links to government agencies rather than filing applications itself.
“For some programs we give you the resource to file on your own, and in the future we want Jake to help you do it for free, to save time and increase your odds of getting it,” says Hirsch. The ambition extends beyond filing paperwork. “We really want to help consumers wherever they are, and almost build like a Credit Karma for benefits”.
Even Steve Harvey Couldn’t Beat the Bureaucracy
Harvey claims the platform’s greatest strength lies in uncovering benefits people would otherwise overlook. He argued that government programs typically operate in silos, meaning applicants are rarely told about other forms of assistance they may also qualify for.
“I know that there’s $140 billion of benefits left on the table every single year because people — it’s just too difficult to get to it. And that doesn’t make any sense for the people who make me famous,” he says. The figure comes from a 2023 report citing an estimate that more than $140 billion in authorized government benefits go unclaimed each year, largely because of administrative hurdles.
Harvey says his support for Turnout’s mission stems as much from personal experience with bureaucracy as it does from faith in AI. His charitable foundation spent 17 years unsuccessfully pursuing government grants before he ultimately abandoned the effort.
“I haven’t gotten a single one—no grants in 17 years,” he says. “I got tired of trying to jump through the hoops and do the tap dance. My wife and I just funded it ourselves. I’m fortunate because I can call somebody, have them research it and try to get things done. A lot of people out there don’t have those resources.” He also draws a sharp distinction between this and the kinds of products celebrities typically endorse. “If this saves you the headache and helps you get the benefits you’re entitled to—maybe even more than you expected—that’s a win-win for me.”
The Free Tool Feeds A Paid One?
Turnout’s own disclosures say the company charges nothing for official government forms but does charge fees for using its software to help clients complete them. The company also says it is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Hirsch argues the commercial model has no bearing on Radar’s recommendations. “We have an unbiased AI logic mechanism that picks the best benefits, whether we have commercial services there or not,” Hirsch says.
But if a venture-backed company becomes the most usable front door to the welfare state, that’s a triumph of product design—and an indictment of the public system it sits beside. Hirsch says he would rather not be necessary.
“I would love for the government to be more automated, to have a better UX. We do see some positive changes there, but far too slow and inefficient,” he says. “I would love to partner with the system organizations, but that’s not our business model right now. We’re going direct to consumer and trying to provide everything on the outskirts of it.”
Likewise, Harvey is particularly frustrated by how the current system treats veterans. He questioned why people who have already served their country can spend months navigating bureaucracy before learning whether they qualify for benefits that could shape the rest of their lives. “Here’s a man or woman who has laid their life on the line for the country, and then they come back and run into all types of difficulties. We’ve got too many homeless veterans who have paid the price with post-traumatic stress, and we’re not doing the right things by them.”
He doesn’t expect the underlying system to change. What frustrates him more is the way Americans talk about those caught in it. “America believes that if you pull yourself up by the bootstraps, you should be fine,” Harvey says. “What happens to the Americans who don’t have boots? Let alone pull yourself up with a strap — you don’t have boots. We have enough in this country to make sure everybody’s okay. But because we are a capitalistic society, it’s just not designed that way.”
Harvey Draws A Line He Says AI Can’t Cross
Asked where human judgment remains irreplaceable, Harvey argues that machines may eventually imitate reasoning, but they can only learn from the people who build them. In his view, what ultimately separates humans from AI is the uniquely human capacity to make choices—from where to live and whom to love to the careers they pursue.
Pressed on whether AI alone could ever replace experienced advocates, Harvey rejects the idea outright. “No, you can’t,” he says. “You can’t run a country or a business depending completely on AI. You’ve got to meet people, talk to people and convince them you’re the right person. That’s what makes a company successful.” For him, the missing ingredient isn’t intelligence—it’s imagination. “You become successful in business through relationships, not computers.”
Coming from a generation that adopted digital tools later in life—he didn’t own his first cellphone until age 27—he says he’s still trying to keep pace with how quickly AI is evolving. The question of AI replacing jobs is where Harvey parts ways with many of the technology’s loudest critics.
“Everybody thinks AI is going to be this big monster that’s going to cost people their jobs. It’s not,” he says. “A lot of new jobs are being created because of it. Young people are becoming content creators and using AI to make a lot of money. So for me, it’s a love-hate relationship—but mostly love.” Yet for all his optimism, “We just have to be careful,” he cautioned.
