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... See more

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... See more

In OnlyFans and the Evolution of the Influencer, I wrote that I’m skeptical of digital celebrities like those created by the company Brud. Computer-created influencers seem at odds with the trend toward more authentic, relatable influencers.