AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans::Brands are turning to hyper-realistic, AI-generated influencers for promotions.
AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans::Brands are turning to hyper-realistic, AI-generated influencers for promotions.
Human influences have always given me dystopian vibes. And they were just making some executives and themselves rich, is not such a big loss…
Human influencers are just celebrities at a smaller scale, and frankly the assumption that influencer/celebrity culture will go away if influencers are replaced I’m seeing in this thread is completely unrealistic. We will just get Coca-ColAIna and L’ÓreAI-chan instead of people occasionally peddling products.
If there’s any real concern of artificiality and parasocial following as a replacement for real human connections behind this disdain at influencers, then in no way replacing them with AI is going to fix anything. It will only make it worse. It will lead to custom-tailored indoctrination by brands.
Worse than that, I already see people treating actual artists much in the same way. That the human element in culture doesn’t matter as much as having an endless source of nebulous content, and that anyone making art should get a “real job” instead. Nevermind that those are also in line for automation…
‘Influencer’ as a job has only existed for what, 10 years? I don’t think society will collapse without them.
Influencers have a lot of overlap with artistic expression online, but this is not even all that it is about. This is not going to end simply with replacing Logan Paul and stopping at that. This is only one more step in a trend to replace a lot of creative, intellectual and service jobs. Which wouldn’t even be so bad if those people had a guarantee of a living and could do anything they want with their time… but this is not how it goes.
We couldn’t guarantee a living to all the people who had to go around picking up horse shit or lighting gas streetlamps either. Sure, a UBI would be nice, but technology advances. And I really do not believe it is a slippery slope from ending the career of Logan Paul to ending the career of a future Leonardo Da Vinci.
Back then we couldn’t guaranteed. But since productivity has grown immensely. We do grow more than enough food to feed every single person, and often that food it thrown out for a myriad of economic reasons. Technology advances but we see less and less of the benefits. It used to be at least that it freed us from manual labor into service work, but if it takes that too, then what?
You may not believe it all you want, artist are already seeing their careers diminishing in financial viability. Before we even could speculate about the threat to influencers, there were already visual artists and voice actors who gave up because their commissioners and employers decided to use AI instead. One might say “this means they weren’t very good so no loss”, but how does an artist get good if not practice? Nah, we aren’t sliding from ending Logan Paul to ending a prospective Leonardo Da Vinci, likely we already ruined the chances of that Da Vinci and now it’s sliding towards influencers.
And you know what, I don’t even think Logan Paul is going to lose his job considering how established he is. But some smaller, more integrous and creative influencers might.
Good, maybe they’ll get a productive job then and stop forcing their attempts at being influencers. You either are or aren’t one; they clearly don’t have what it takes to influence their viewers to buy sponsor products as efficiently.
Advertising isn’t a noble business and influencers are just advertisers. There is no noble human spirit in advertising, it is (and always has been) an exploitative and ignoble career.
You can resent advertising however much you want but you are getting this one backwards. Influencers can be anything from models, reviewers, comedians, actors, so forth. It’s a catch-all term for internet performers. They often rely on brand deals because it’s one of the few reliable ways to make money on the internet. But do you really think millions of people follow influencers for the sole purpose of getting advertised at? That doesn’t make sense.
“influencers” are more like models than celebrities… they add nothing
Do you really think models add nothing? Because that is a form of art too. If anything the comparison only serves to give some credit to influencers.
I’ll bite… what do models add?
What is there to “bite”? Photography would be a lot more limited without them. Fashion, whether you are into it or not, needs them. Traditional artists rely on them to learn. This is not even bringing up the more salacious side of it which, regardless if you think that is “worthy” or not, it’s enjoyed by a lot of people.
it’s not an art, it’s advertising…
Do you realize artistic photography uses models too? I mentioned it right below in this discussion.
Consider that maybe you associate modeling with advertisements because our society is more driven by marketing than culture.
actually, no. It’s a line from the movie Mia… about a model… and i, an artist, have given it thought prior to this discussion…
photography IS an art, yep… models posing isn’t… it can be kinda artistic, i suppose… there’s an expression in it… but it can be artistic without being an artform.
like making a wood dresser, it’s more of craftsmanship than an art (but carpentry cooooould be used in art, such as wooden sculpture…)
and, yes, influencers coooould be taking artistic pictures of themselves, but that’s not what influencer really means.
at any rate, i hope they all die painful deaths… and it’s about the only artsy thing i feel ok with AI replacing.
And if you consider beauty filters, AI replaced influencers a long time ago…
Arts and crafts is a whole another discussion, and some say this distinction is only made to demean artisans when compared to academic artists. Similarly, if photography is art, and physical expression such as dance is art, I don’t see why modeling wouldn’t be art.
Influencers aren’t all Logan Paul either. Would someone who offers useful recommendations or makes good comedy skits deserve to die either? Seems extreme. This whole thread seems way too hateful of the idea.
i see you only skimmed my comment and then treated my joke as if im serious… pretty lame
Replacing influencers with ai is not going to fix anything for that we should dismantle social media and have a serious talk all 8 billion of us, but it’s not going to make anything worse either, it is already custom tailored indoctrination by brands and a handful of assholes are making stupid amounts of money. I’m not going to cry if that money shifts to different hands.
Yes artists come up often in this kind of discussions, the ones that are losing their job to ai never had one in the first place, same as influencers. What are we talking about, Jim that makes you a custom logo and business cards for your business?
The guy that gets a commission from the newly opened local microbrewery for graffiti-ing their walls is hardly losing any work to ai. If anything they could integrate ai in their creative process.