\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nP<\/span>osing in front of Coachella Festival\u2019s iconic Ferris wheel, Aitana Lopez looks like the epitome of California cool. Her long hair is expertly tousled and dyed a soft shade of pink. The Indio sunlight catches on her boho-style belt, and the fringing on her suede outfit seems to dance in the wind. She\u2019s even managed to grab a branded cupholder from Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner\u2019s rhode skin x 818 tequila collaboration, an influencer must-have at the first weekend of the festival. <\/p>\nNot that Aitana would have much use for either a lip balm or a glass of tequila, though. Because Aitana, who boasts 392,000 followers, doesn\u2019t really exist. She is an AI-generated influencer \u2013 or, as her Instagram bio puts it, a \u201cdigital soul\u201d \u2013 created by the Barcelona-based tech agency The Clueless, and reportedly earns up to $10,000 each month, thanks to \u201cmodelling\u201d work and brand deals. <\/p>\n
Although her bio makes it clear that she is a virtual creation, it\u2019s less obvious whether the people commenting \u201cstunning!\u201d and \u201cfantastic as always\u201d under her hyper-real photos have cottoned on, or whether they\u2019re buying into the illusion wholesale. Indeed, according to one of her designers, an actor with five million followers once sent her a message asking her on a date IRL.<\/p>\n
In a particularly Black Mirror <\/em>twist, the glowing praise sometimes seems to originate from the accounts of her fellow AI influencers, immaculate \u201cwomen\u201d with flawless skin, slightly uncanny eyes and euphemistic phrases like \u201cdigital storyteller\u201d in their account descriptions. Some opt for the equally malleable term \u201cdigital creator\u201d. <\/p>\nTheir content is often barely distinguishable from the output of your classic Instagram hot girl: there are \u201cget ready with me\u201d videos, workout pictures, iced coffees galore and even Dior-branded under-eye patches. AI \u201csisters\u201d Mia and Ana Zelu, created by the agency Zelu House, share photos from their \u201ctravels\u201d and pose at sports games. <\/p>\n
Some are more idiosyncratic, like Granny Spills, an old woman dressed almost exclusively in pink who, according to her social media bio, has been \u201cspilling tea and designer receipts since 1950\u201d and boasts 2 million followers. Her Coachella snaps include photos \u201cwith\u201d various Kardashian-Jenner siblings and Hailey and Justin Bieber, posing alongside convincingly AI-generated celebs. <\/p>\n
Including famous faces in their \u201ccontent\u201d is a straightforward way for these virtual influencers to get more eyeballs on their posts (although you do wonder how the stars themselves must feel about having their likenesses dragged into this uncanny valley). So is piggybacking on big cultural moments like Coachella. Influencers have long faked their attendance by renting Airbnbs and hotels nearby and uploading pictures in the desert. Are these AI creations just going one step further?<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/div>
AI influencer Granny Spills poses \u2018with\u2019 Justin and Hailey Bieber at Coachella (Granny Spills\/Instagram)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nIt\u2019s thought that there are now thousands of virtual influencers operating on Instagram and TikTok. The market size was valued at $6.33bn in 2024 and has been forecasted to reach a staggering $11.78bn by 2033. While you might assume that this uncanny content would be an automatic turn-off for social media users, it\u2019s not that simple. <\/p>\n
Research from Sprout Social has found that half of UK consumers would be comfortable with a brand using AI influencers as well as human influencers, while 41 per cent are open to following them. Perhaps in a digital ecosystem already saturated with heavily edited and filtered content, we simply see entirely artificial characters as a logical progression. Perhaps they\u2019re just inured to AI slop.<\/p>\n
This burgeoning industry even has an awards ceremony of its own. More than 2,000 \u201cpersonalities\u201d have already entered the first-ever AI Personality of the Year Awards, which have been described by their organisers as \u201cthe Oscars for AI influencers\u201d. Aitana is, of course, one of its official ambassadors. <\/p>\n
The contenders slogging it out for a total prize fund of $90,000 aren\u2019t just Coachella-going clothes-horses: they cover a whole spectrum. One of them, RoRo Castillos, is a Mexican LGBT+ Reggaeton musician. Another is Alex Laine, an Arsenal aficionado who was designed to appeal to female football fans. She is the result of a collaboration between Aitana\u2019s agency The Clueless and another company, Pixel, though she identifies as \u201cnorth London through and through\u201d; her posts feature glossy photos \u201cattending\u201d matches at the Emirates stadium, reformer pilates classes and Blank Street coffees. As far as AI influencers go, though, she is still in the lower leagues, with just shy of 1,700 followers. <\/p>\n
But why exactly do we need awards for \u201cpersonalities\u201d that have been generated through AI prompts? Is anyone really convinced by the vaguely preternatural gloss of these digital creations (Alex seems pretty convincing, until you look at the strange angle of her head in her photos from a virtual Columbia Road flower market)? And should we be concerned by this latest blurring of artifice and reality? <\/p>\n
The first virtual influencers started to appear about a decade ago. One of the first was Lil Miquela, the creation of an LA startup called Brud. With her blunt fringe, bun hairstyle and freckles, she was designed to imitate a Californian model in her late teens, and was made using CGI rather than AI. <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/div>
CGI wish you were here: Lil Miquela poses in front of Coachella\u2019s iconic Ferris wheel (Instagram\/@lilmiquela)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe team behind her realised that \u201cinstead of \u2018renting\u2019 influencers, they could build their own, over which they would have full creative control\u201d, says Maddie Travers, creator partnerships lead at digital agency Deviation, who is also a content creator on TikTok with more than 33,000 followers of her own. This era was a \u201cpivotal time, when influencer marketing began to explore and the boundaries of \u2018real\u2019 started to waver\u201d, she adds. <\/p>\n
The fashion world, staying true to its reputation as an industry obsessed with perfection, welcomed Miquela with open arms. She featured in a Milan Fashion Week Instagram takeover for Prada and a surreal campaign for Calvin Klein, in which she appeared to kiss (real) model Bella Hadid. The brand was accused of queer-baiting, as Hadid is straight, and later apologised for \u201cany offence caused\u201d. <\/p>\n
That backlash, though, was a storm in a teacup compared to the furore that accompanied Miquela\u2019s announcement that she had been \u201cdiagnosed\u201d with leukaemia in 2025. The post was a collaboration with the American bone marrow donation charity NMDP, but was criticised for making light of the experiences of people who actually have the disease. <\/p>\n
Some of the more popular characters \u2013 like Miquela and Aitana \u2013 are the work of creative agencies. Others are being made in-house by brands themselves: Tom Sneddon, head of social at Serviceplan Group UK, tells me that by 2030, he expects that \u201ca large number of brands will own their own AI \u201cvirtual talent\u201d to act as a constant \u2018brand face\u201d.<\/p>\n
Technological advances have made huge strides since the days of Lil Miquela\u2019s \u201cbirth\u201d. \u201cWhat\u2019s changed since then is how easy these \u2018synthetic\u2019 influencers are to create,\u201d says Jago Sherman, head of strategy for North America and EMEA at The Goat Agency, a social-first influencer marketing agency. \u201cNow the barrier to entry is incredibly low, which is why we\u2019re seeing a surge of AI influencers flooding social media feeds.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/div>
Lil Miquela has teamed up with brands like BMW for campaigns and collaborations (Instagram\/@lilmiquela)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nImprovements in AI mean that it\u2019s now easy to generate just-about convincing images and videos by typing a prompt into a chatbot \u2013 no programming or graphics knowledge required. A real creator might spend hours finessing a 30-second video clip \u2013 an AI version would take just a few moments. <\/p>\n
No wonder, then, that AI influencers are being touted online as yet another get-rich-quick scheme. Their prevalence, Sherman suggests, is being driven in part \u201cby the promise of an easy way to make money\u201d \u2013 he likens it to other side hustles like dropshipping and course selling. Many of these digital characters, in fact, are essentially a virtual shopfront for courses in AI influencer creation. <\/p>\n
A Coachella post from the virtual influencer Athena directs her followers to something similar. \u201cNo ticket to the USA. No Coachella tickets. No outfit decisions needed. Just a vision and a system to make it come to life,\u201d the caption reads. \u201cComment AI and I\u2019ll send you the details.\u201d According to Sneddon, even \u201csmaller, automated AI influencer accounts can expect to generate a reasonable four-figure monthly fee through platform ad revenue and custom videos\u201d. It\u2019s a sum that\u2019s not to be sniffed at.<\/p>\n
It is clear why higher-end AI creations might appeal to brands: they sidestep some of the messiness of influencer marketing, explains Megan Dooley, head of brand at TAL Agency. \u201cIt\u2019s an expensive branch of digital marketing, can be hard to control depending on who you work with, and there\u2019s always the risk of it blowing up in your face if a creator goes off-script.\u201d <\/p>\n
Virtual influencers, by contrast, \u201care less prone to scandal and controversy, which gives them a strong advantage in today\u2019s risk-sensitive social media\u201d (tone-deaf campaigns like Lil Miquela\u2019s leukaemia announcement aside, of course). Indeed, one of Aitana\u2019s creators, Rub\u00e9n Cruz, previously revealed that The Clueless dreamed up Aitana after \u201crealising that many projects were being put on hold or cancelled due to problems beyond our control. Often it was the fault of the influencer or model and not due to design issues\u201d. <\/p>\n\n
\nSmaller, automated AI influencer accounts can expect to generate a reasonable four-figure monthly fee <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Tom Sneddon, head of social at Serviceplan Group UK<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
Then there are more practical considerations: an AI character \u201ccan be available 24\/7\u201d, Dooley adds, and won\u2019t get bored or fatigued by replying to their followers. They can also be used all around the world \u201cwithout logistics and financial restrictions getting in the way. This makes them highly efficient from a purely operational standpoint\u201d. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s interesting, too, is that some (human) influencers are embracing AI \u201ctwins\u201d as a way of streamlining their workload. Last year, the TikTok star Khaby Lame (160 million followers and counting) made a $975m deal with the Hong Kong-based company Rich Sparkle Holdings, allowing them to use AI to create a virtual version of him. Another TikTok star, Whoa Vicky, launched an AI avatar last year. \u201cI think every creator is eventually going to have their own digital version of themselves \u2013 voice, video, AI clones,\u201d her manager Jonnie Forster told The Hollywood Reporter.<\/em><\/p>\nA recent study of more than 500 North American influencers found that 62 per cent report burnout, and outsourcing some of the more tedious aspects of content creation to a digital doppelganger could well make their job less arduous. But what does this mean if your personal brand as a creator is predicated upon an authentic connection with your followers? And are creators who embrace AI essentially participating in their own obsolescence? <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/div>
Khaby Lame made a deal allowing a company to use AI to create a virtual avatar of his likeness (Getty)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nCreators who rely on more \u201caesthetic\u201d content might be \u201cmost at risk\u201d, Sherman suggests, as they are \u201cby no means irreplaceable\u201d. Indeed, Aitana and co are already doing a pretty good job of playing them at their own game. But, he notes, \u201cmost successful influencers understand that their value comes from their connection with their audience and their creativity, taste, authenticity, and story\u201d. These are all \u201cthings that are very hard, if not impossible for AI to convincingly recreate\u201d \u2013 however much these ghostly creations insist that they are, for example, \u201ctypical Scorpios\u201d who love matcha. <\/p>\n
And there are obvious flaws when it comes to creating virtual characters for categories that rely on \u201ccredibility and trust\u201d, Dooley says \u2013 think mental health, parenting, fitness or even beauty. Who wants skincare or workout recommendations from\u2026 an incorporeal AI creation? <\/p>\n
One of my more bizarre experiences during my journey down the \u201cdigital storytelling\u201d rabbit hole came when I ended up watching the \u201cdigital IT girl\u201d Olivia Brand talking about her Christian faith. \u201cWhy am I watching a bot talk about their soul?\u201d I wondered. Content like this just comes across as jarring at best, AI slop at worst. To differentiate themselves from this, Dooley reckons that real creators will start \u201cputting more emphasis on what makes them human\u201d \u2013 flaws and all. <\/p>\n
Sherman agrees that the rise of AI may well \u201cpush creators to be more distinctive\u201d, which could be a good thing, he says. \u201cThey should push themselves creatively, they should carve out a niche or style or creative IP that is distinctively \u2018them,\u2019\u201d he suggests. <\/p>\n
But as technology improves further, and the interactions between human followers and AI creators become more advanced, he issues a caution. \u201cThe lines between AI and human relationships can start to blur, which raises concerns around manipulation and mental health in a way that feels quite unprecedented and quite frankly, scarily dystopian\u201d. <\/p>\n
Right now, it seems, actual influencers don\u2019t have much to fear. But in a decade\u2019s time? Who\u2019s to say\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Posing in front of Coachella Festival\u2019s iconic Ferris wheel, Aitana Lopez looks like the epitome of California cool. Her long hair is expertly tousled and dyed a soft shade of pink. The Indio sunlight catches on her boho-style belt, and the fringing on her suede outfit seems to dance in the wind. She\u2019s even managed to grab a branded cupholder from Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner\u2019s rhode skin x 818 tequila collaboration, an influencer must-have at the first weekend of the festival. Not that Aitana would have much use for either a lip balm or a glass of tequila, though. Because Aitana, who boasts 392,000 followers, doesn\u2019t really exist. She is an AI-generated influencer \u2013 or, as her Instagram bio puts it, a \u201cdigital soul\u201d \u2013 created by the Barcelona-based tech agency The Clueless, and reportedly earns up to $10,000 each month, thanks to \u201cmodelling\u201d work and brand deals. Although her bio makes it clear that she is a virtual creation, it\u2019s less obvious whether the people commenting \u201cstunning!\u201d and \u201cfantastic as always\u201d u…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}