Social media influencers have embraced artificial intelligence (AI) to spice up their content, but they are also facing growing competition from AI-generated Instagramers, TikTokers and YouTubers.
Sporting pink hair and posing in lingerie, swimsuits or gym outfits, Aitana Lopez has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram where she is described as a “gamer at heart” and “fitness lover” — except she is not real.
Aitana was created by The Clueless, a Barcelona-based company that describes itself as an “AI modeling agency” run by “visionaries on a mission to redefine the world of influencers.”
Photo: AFP
The Clueless project manager Sofia Novales said “rising costs associated with human influencers” were a reason for the firm’s creation.
“Virtual models, being digital, present a more economical alternative,” Novales said.
Another plus: total control over content.
“The advantages lie in unparalleled creative control, allowing seamless decisionmaking on image, fashion and aesthetics without the need for physical photoshoots,” Novales said.
The rise of AI has fueled concerns about the proliferation of deepfake videos that could be used maliciously.
Meta Platforms Inc, which owns Facebook and Instagram, on Friday said that it would start putting “Made with AI labels” on AI-generated content next month.
AI presents a huge business opportunity for content creators: The influencer market is expected to grow rapidly, from US$16.5 billion in 2022 to nearly US$200 billion by 2032, Allied Market Research has said.
Using virtual influencers is not new — Barbie already has millions of followers on Instagram — but they are now being used in advertisements where they cannot be told apart from a real person.
Take Lil Miquela, a “19-year-old Robot living in LA” created by a California agency in 2016.
With 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 3.5 million on TikTok, Lil Maqueta has promoted brands as big as BMW AG.
The idea was to “create something never seen before,” the German premium automaker said in a statement.
“Attracting a younger, technology-savvy generation is for us the icing on the cake,” it added.
Maud Lejeune, cofounder and CEO of Paris-based digital strategy agency AD Crew, said that it is not difficult for the public to accept AI influencers.
“It’s like actors on TV: We know it isn’t real yet we follow them and we find it interesting, it’s like watching a mini-series,” Lejeune said.
AD Crew represents more than 30 influencers, but Lejeune created her own virtual influencer, Metagaya, two years ago.
“The current level of design didn’t exist then. It’s technical, you’ve got to dress them, take photos for the background, create a story,” said Lejeune, acknowledging that Metagaya did not turn out very well.
The rapid technological progress brought by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora video generator could make it easier to create and operate realistic virtual influencers.
Human influencers are also seizing on AI technology to make better videos. In France, Charles Sterlings sees an opportunity to improve translations.
He uses tools on platforms such as HeyGen and Rask.ai to automatically translate and lip-sync his video posts into English and Spanish.
Sterlings also uses Deepshot, a platform that allows users to create deepfakes by changing the words and mouth movements of people in real videos.
He said it took him just a few minutes and a few dollars to manipulate a video of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Yet Sterlings sees the technology as a competitor as well as a useful tool.
“Anyone with a phone can be an influencer, but eventually, it will be artificial intelligence, available 24 hours a day, and much cheaper to develop,” he said.
For Lejeune, AI can help influencers produce more content.
“It’s tough to put yourself in front of the camera for a long time and certain creators burn out... Maybe AI will provide a new way to create without exposing oneself,” she said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary