Paris: Social media influencers have embraced artificial intelligence to augment their content, but they are facing increasing competition from AI-powered Instagramers, TikTokers and YouTubers.
Aitana Lopez, who sports pink hair and is photographed in lingerie, swimwear or sports, has more than 300,000 followers on Instagram, where she is described as a “gamer at heart” and “fitness lover” – unreal.
Aitana was created by Barcelona-based company The Clueless and describes itself as an “AI modeling agency” run by “observers with the aim of identifying the world of influencers”.
Sofia Novales, project manager at The Clueless, said the company was founded because of “increasing costs associated with human influencers.”
“Virtual models offer a cheaper alternative to going digital,” Novales said.
Another plus: full content control.
“The advantage is that you have unparalleled creative control, allowing you to make decisions about image, fashion and aesthetics without the need for a physical photo,” says Novales.
The rise of AI has raised concerns about the proliferation of deep-dive videos that could be used for nefarious purposes.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said on Friday that it will start posting “Made by AI” posts on AI-generated content.
AI offers huge business opportunities for content creators: The influencer market is expected to grow rapidly from $16.5 billion in 2022 to $200 billion by 2032.
Using virtual influencers is nothing new: Barbie already has millions of followers on Instagram.
But now it is used in advertisements that cannot be told apart from real people.
Take Lil Mikela, “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 followers on TikTok, Lil Maqueta has promoted brands like BMW.
The German premium car maker said in a statement to AFP that its idea was to “create something that has never happened”.
“Attracting the younger generation who are tech savvy is the icing on the cake,” he said.
Maud Lejeune, CEO of Paris-based digital strategy agency AD Crew, says it is not difficult for people to accept AI influencers.
“It’s like an actor on TV: we know it’s not real, but we follow it and find it interesting, like watching a mini-series.”
AD Crew represents more than 30 influencers, but Lejeune created his own virtual influencer Metagame two years ago.
“It’s not the current design level. Technically, you have to dress them up, shoot them in the background, create a story,” Lejeune admitted.
Rapid technological advances brought about by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora video generator can make it easier to create and operate real virtual influencers.
Human influence uses AI technology to make better videos.
Charles Sterling from France saw an opportunity to improve the translation.
It uses various tools on platforms like HeyGen and Rask.ai to automatically translate and lip-sync videos into English and Spanish.
Sterlings also uses Deepshot, a platform that allows users to change the words and movements of people’s mouths in real videos to create depth.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it took a few minutes and a few dollars to manipulate his video.
But the Sterlings see technology as a competitive and useful tool.
“Anyone with a phone can be affected. But the end result will be artificial intelligence, available 24 hours a day and cheaper to develop,” he said.
For Maud Lejeune, AI can help influencers generate more content.
“It’s hard to put yourself in front of the camera for a long time and some creators get burned out … Maybe AI will offer new ways to create without exposing yourself,” he said.
Clueless AI models have no expertise in their work from real influencers.
“We don’t expect the fitness of a real model or to replace an AI-generated model like Aitana,” Novales said. “We think they can coexist as other industry competitors.”
AI vs humans: influencers face competition from virtual models
