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TikTok—one of the biggest repositories of AI slime—is exploring the possibility of releasing virtual influencers to compete for brand deals against its human influencers. Instead of a brand paying a human influencer five or six figures to flog its clothes or cars (a sum TikTok doesn’t get a cut of) the platform wants to offer brands the option of u... See more

Miquela Sousa, aka Lil Miquela, is the first AI social media influencer. She’s a multi-hyphenate 19-year-old, half-Brazilian, half-Spanish model, influencer and singer created by creative agency Brud in 2016. Since her debut, she has accumulated 2.9 million followers on Instagram, and in 2018 she was named Time’s ’Most Influential People on the Int... See more

Without going into the moral implications of choosing "robots" over humans, virtual influencers can open up new social media channels for brands. Depending on the brand, VI marketing can be a great way to connect with audiences. It’s up to brands to decide what the trade-off is between messaging, having control over a virtual persona, a likely boos... See more

By definition, a virtual influencer is a fictional AI-generated person with realistic characteristics, features and personalities of humans. They behave just like real-life influencers. They speak to the camera, share selfies, feelings and thoughts. The only difference is the content. And, well, the obvious – they’re computer-generated with pre-pro... See more

At a time when interacting safely with other humans can no longer be taken for granted, the appetite for digital spokespeople is accelerating. Brands are expected to spend as much as $15 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2022, up from $8 billion last year, according to Business Insider Intelligence. A growing slice of that money belongs t... See more

Brands are well attuned to the power of the influencer, but are afraid of getting embroiled in a scandal. As social intelligence company Influential’s founder and chief executive Ryan Detert puts it, human creators could have “a crazy night, get arrested or they have a slur of some sort on their page”. Virtual influencers on the other hand “have a ... See more