Artificially Created, Truly Influential: How AI Influencers Are Taking Over Social Media

Last updated on Wednesday, 27/11/2024

Virtual influencers are experiencing a significant upsurge on social media. Created in a blink of an eye, they offer limitless creative opportunities for their creators. The biggest virtual influencer has an impressive 7.2 million followers on Instagram alone, making her one of the most powerful figures on the platform (@magazineluiza). But how easy is it to create these digital personas? What are the risks and how can I maintain a healthy balance in my own social media use?

I type ‘Canva AI’ into the search bar of my browser. After a few clicks, I get to a field where I enter my commands: 
+++ Create a young guy, with brown hair, brown eyes, wearing modern clothes with a short beard. He should become a virtual influencer and should be authentic and look realistic +++

The programme's loading bar slowly moves to 100 per cent. I open the image it generates and see someone who looks strangely familiar, but everything about them seems a bit too perfect. It’s my avatar and it looks friendly; he wears a brown-and-white striped T-shirt. Only a look into his eyes reveals a certain emptiness. That’s no surprise because this person has never existed. With a few instructions from me, my virtual character was born.

(Created via CanvaAI)

Creating your own artificial person has never been easier. With the help of artificial intelligence, anyone can create their perfect avatar. The number of tools for creating artificial images is growing from year to year. Among the best known are DALL-E 2, Midjourney or the artificial intelligence of Canva. Once getting little attention, these virtual personas now attract millions of followers on social media.

The fascination with artificially created people lies in the details of their programming. Sometimes programming is so advanced that a virtual avatar is almost indistinguishable from a real person - just a mouse click away. But what kind of impact do virtual avatars have on younger generation?

(Screenshot from Instagram account @lilmiquela)

Lil Miquela is considered the first virtual influencer to be launched on social media. Created in 2016 by a startup technology company in Los Angeles named ‘brud’, Lil Miquela is portrayed as a 21-year-old half-Brazilian woman. She has medium-length, straight brown hair with bangs and large brown eyes. Her skin has a warm tone, often with visible freckles on her face. Her style is modern, frequently a mix of streetwear and high fashion. The company behind Miquela has created an entire universe around her character. What sometimes feels like a real-life episode of Black Mirror is followed by 2.5 million people on Instagram. They can see how she lives, what she does all day, and how she promotes festivals and brands like Calvin Klein.

Currently, there are dozens of established virtual influencers on social media. First, of course, there are Miquela's friends, Blawko22 and Bermuda. Blawko stands out - he is a man who looks like a typical playboy, but at the same time, he’s urban, stylish and special. His trademark is the mask on his face. Bermuda, also from the Brud universe, by comparison, looks very classic. Slim, blond, athletic and rather girly, she posts pictures of herself doing sports or going out. Altogether, the three characters are followed by over 2.84 million people.

The business of virtual influencers seems to be booming. They work as models, they work with companies and are their brand ambassadors. Thus, companies behind these AI influencers earn money. A huge advantage – these influencers are quickly created, cheap to produce, and always available. You can even find DIY instructions on the internet on how to make money from artificial influencers.

At a legal level, EU member states developed the first regulations for the use of AI in mid-May this year, focusing on mandatory labelling and the protection and safeguarding of fundamental rights. However, there is already a clear gap between legislation and practical experience. This is not least due to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The real boom in AI influencers happened during the pandemic. Airports were closed, travel was difficult, and people were sometimes not allowed to leave their homes. But in the virtual world, there was no lockdown. As a result, many people escaped into artificially created environments, and the hype around virtual avatars was born.

Someone who has been following this trend for a while is Tebbe Helfers. He’s studying business informatics in eastern Germany and is fascinated by the process of creating artificial avatars. "I'm curious to see where this goes in the future. I think it's going to get crazy - we won't be able to tell the difference between real and fake," says Tebbe. But he claims that doesn't bother him, because behind every fictional person, there is someone using human intelligence to design them. Tebbe is more concerned about video creation. ’’What happens when Open AI or Google introduce their video models? If you can create really authentic videos, I think it will be very fucked up’’. Tebbe has no doubt that society will accept this type of artificial influencers, especially if they don't know that they are not real people. This raises important questions about the implications of virtual avatars on social media.

However, there are also some problems with AI influencers, as many established AI avatars have something in common - they all promote a stereotypical image. They are extremely pretty, have great physique, travel a lot, and experience exciting things. On social media, they’re omnipresent and represent an ideal of beauty that’s far from reality. As a result, fiction and reality are moving closer together, and the line between the virtual and real life is becoming increasingly blurred.

It's well known that there is a link between the fictional world of social media and the real world. An internal Facebook study, brought to light by whistleblower Frances Haugen, revealed that the mental health of young social media users in particular is being negatively affected. Seeing other people get more attention in photos or videos can create social pressure. There’s an automatic comparison that often does not meet one's own expectations. Even though many users are aware of how posts are made, they often find themselves stuck in a cycle of seeking validation and chasing an idealised version of their own reality.

Virtual influencers are likely to increase the pressure on young users to conform to these avatars. The tech company Meta, which runs Instagram and Facebook, is responding to the rise of AI-generated images by labelling them as AI-made. But what can I do as a consumer of social media?

In addition to taking enough social media breaks, experts recommend ‘reality checks.’ This means taking a few minutes to watch other people in their daily lives and notice what real life is like. Support from friends, parents, or teachers, along with better self-awareness, can help improve your body image. It’s a process that takes time, but it shows that the real world and the online world are very different. And that’s a really good thing.
If everyone could create themselves with a few words in a very short time, as I described in my example above, wouldn't the imperfect be perfect again?

_______________

Young Journalists in Europe - Meet the author

Lennart Platz
Hello, my name is Lennart. I'm 23, from Germany, and I'm studying Media Management and Journalism. I've travelled to lots of places in Europe and met different people. My friend and I run a small radio show where we talk to new German musicians. We work to make the show fun for everyone, young and old. I'm curious about sports, music, and culture, and I'm always ready for new ideas or projects that can help people meet and make new things.

This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission and Eurodesk cannot be held responsible for it.