By: KATY SNODGRASS
Ks@439219@ohio.edu
The idea of robots taking over the world one day has been commonplace in films, books, TV shows, etc., for as long as we've had the technology to do any of those things. Usually, they depict harsh, cold machines causing mass damage with no remorse and no emotions, not an attractive-looking 19-year-old woman trying to sell you products on Instagram.
Miquela Sousa, more popularly known as Lil' Miquela, was one of the first virtual influencers to fascinate and captivate users online. Lil' Miquela was created to be as life-like as possible to convince as many people as possible she was an authentic teen influencer selling products for brands. And for about two years, but why bother going through all that trouble when there is an abundance of human influencers willing to do the same thing? The Problematic Fakery of Lil' Miquela Explained
A "Forbes" article by Matt Klein explains that it's all about how much a brand can control the influencer. According to Klein, "Virtual Influencers are controllable and pose no risk- Miquela doesn't have seven-year-old racist tweets to blow her film prospects. Further, it's proclaimed that Virtual Influencers command three times higher engagement than a human influencer."
In other words, brands can build their perfect influencer to fit their specific need and target audience entirely from scratch and can go on to control everything it does, says, and promotes. Making an already blurry line between influencer relationships with brands even blurrier.
This deception was only worsened because Miquela had deceived the general public for two years before it later turned out that Lil' Miquela is not a human. As a result, any casual user of Instagram could scroll past without ever knowing they saw a virtual character.
The issue continues to worsen as Virtual Influencer stars like Miquela become increasingly more popular, the more Virtual Influencers are created to add to the problem. According to a "McGill Business Review" article, "...over 125 Virtual Influencers exist across major social media platforms, and creative agencies continue to create more every month."
Fake Personalities, Real Impact: The Rise of Virtual Influencers
Their popularity has led to a diversity movement within the creative agencies behind the virtual influencers to be as inclusive and representative as possible. While the sentiment of inclusivity is positive and should be celebrated within media, agencies using it to attract a following and make money could be considered immoral.
Nevertheless, virtual influencers' rise to fame could make for the end of their human counterparts.
Hello Katy, I would first like to mention that you picked a great photo to add for this blog because that is exactly who (or what) I think of when I hear that AI's could be possibly taking over. I have a lot of conspiracy theories about how robots and technology will begin control our lives more than we could have imagined. The United States is a first world country meaning we are highly industrialized with advanced economies. We have technology that rapidly grows with people working every minute to produce something better than what is currently out. We already have self driving cars (the Tesla), and while it isn't fully developed, I do not have any doubts that we will soon have cars fully capable of driving on its' own from destination to destination.
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