Joe Tidey
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
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Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They have said they're now experimenting. They've built some men, some male AI.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah. Yeah. Well, no one wants them. No one's interested. They haven't released any as influencers, but they have released some as kind of models that they could put on different advertising campaigns. And according to them, no one wants that.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yes, it has to be labelled in some way saying AI generated. That's according to Instagram's terms and conditions. And all the ones that I found when I was researching this story, they do. They are open about that in the profile. Not at the top, perhaps. It'll say influencer from Chicago, interested in this, this, this and this. AI generated at the bottom.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And that's even worse when you look at the pictures, because, of course, there's normally a caption to go with the pictures and then right at the bottom it'll say, this is AI generated.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So I think potentially there is an issue there because, of course, most people don't look at the profile of a picture that pops up on their For You page, for example, or their algorithmically generated suggestions of what you might be interested in. They'll just scroll through it.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And I think even if they are labelled, there are some people that haven't really understood that or they haven't read that. Because if you look at the comments on some of Aitana's pictures, for example, they say things like, wow, I wish I had your body. What's your gym routine? That kind of thing.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And I don't think it helps when Aitana does posts about being in the gym and working out and great workout in the gym today. This is the nutrition brand that I use, or these are the sports equipments that I have in the gym. This all kind of perpetuates the myth surrounding Itana as being a real person that works hard in the gym, watches what she eats and looks like she does really.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Quite possibly. I think the whole point of having an AI influencer under the control of a person or a studio is that you can control them and that you can do anything with that character to make money for yourself. So I think there will be a little bit of a point in which the automation becomes a problem. So right now, yes, you could make a chatbot, for example.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
You could talk to Aitana for days if you want to. And that could be a good idea for fans, for example. But then you wouldn't want her to say something wrong or do something wrong, which affects her image, because this is all about image. That's all it is. It is very superficial. And it's all just about how you can use an image of someone that doesn't exist to make money.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, and that is a conversation we will no doubt be having in a few years' time. My mind just drifted off to another story that I've been doing recently about an AI chatbot that was created to keep scam callers on the line for as long as possible.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So they just trust that that AI that's pretending to be a sort of doddery, confused old lady is not going to go off script too much and say something silly. The stakes are very low there because this is an organisation that's trying to annoy some criminals. It doesn't matter if this AI says something silly.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
But if you've got AI influencer that's gone off the rails a bit, that is a potential problem.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Have you heard of Notebook LM? No. This is a massive thing that's sort of gone viral recently. Google has created a new AI system whereby you can put whatever information you want into it and then it will read you a 10-minute, 20-minute, half an hour podcast with two fake people, two Americans, and they're having a very, very lifelike chat about the topics.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So people are using it for their research. If you're, for example, you're doing a paper on photosynthesis and you're down the gym, you don't want to read that. Put it into the notebook LM and you can hear two fake AI creations having a chat about your paper.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Love it. No fluff, just straight to the good stuff. We're racing towards a very synthetic future when it comes to media. I think that people know that influencers on Instagram, they are projecting a perfection anyway without AI. Even, for example, do you know some of these pictures that you see of quite rich people in private jets?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They might not be on a private jet because you can hire a private jet that doesn't leave the airport and just take pictures of yourself inside a private jet for clout, you know. So there's already a real layer of fakeness to social media. So some people would argue, is AI much of a leap on from that? And that is the argument from the clueless agency.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They will say, well, if you compare Aitana to other influencers, she's the same as the rest.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Oh, yeah, I think so. I think if you say that your influence are immune, then you're probably lying, aren't you? Because there are certain people and characters and celebrities that we look up to or are interested in, and they have got absolutely enormous followings. So even if you weren't directly impacted, what you might find is that someone in your life has been impacted by them.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
I think it would be really difficult because you could argue this is art. You could argue this is using computers to create art in the same way that a portrait photographer would do that. I suppose what we're seeing already is social networks getting on the front foot and trying to do something. So they've written in the last few years, if this is AI generated, you'd need to label it.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Whether or not they're enforcing those rules... I'm not sure. As I mentioned, the ones that I found were labelled, but kind of in the smallest way possible. The way that governments are going, particularly in the UK and in the EU and in the US, we are seeing a drive to try and protect children online. So if there was any legislation brought in, I imagine it would be something like that.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So, for example, you would have no AI influencers on the feeds of children, something like that, but so hard to police.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
What I found really interesting when I was in Barcelona with the Clueless Agency is what they're working on right now is a project that is very, very 2024. They are trying to come up with the face for the AI in-car voice assistant for a major car company. And they've called it Eileen because everything they do has an AI in it.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
It just strikes me as something that is inevitable because we're talking to AI now by voice assistants all the time. It's going to increase. I'm not just talking, obviously, about Alexa or Siri or Hey Google. It's going to go on and on and on. And we are going to want to humanify these robots and these machines. So that was quite an interesting point and I can see that happening a lot more.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
The other thing they're doing, which is potentially interesting and exciting for them, is they've created another AI influencer, because ITAN has been so successful, who is less sexualised. Again, it's a young woman, but she's got a blonde buzz cut and she is a musician.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
As well as the pictures and the stories, they're adding music as well, because of course music is now very much up for grabs when it comes to generative AI. So that's something I could see going quite fast in that direction, because I think if you're a commercial entity, you're looking beyond the influencer sponsorships and the brand deals. You're looking at appearances.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And if you think about some of the appearances music-wise we've had in the last few years, for example, with ABBA.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
You've seen the ABBA show they're doing.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, Voyage, where they have holograms.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Why not do that if you're an influencer agency and you're trying to branch out and get into different industries? I can see that happening.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
I suppose there's two different things there. What you're consuming, I think, is really important to know what's real and what's fake. The easy way in this example would just be to read the bottom of the captions because it would normally be labelled. Go to the profile.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yes, I've seen me scroll as well. Hours without... Stopping to read the captions. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Whereas in terms of the other question of what they could be doing, I think it's very exciting. I think if you're a teenager, it's way beyond what it used to be. So when I was at university, Facebook was just starting and, you know, the idea of being an influencer in some way.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, there were bloggers out there, but no one was making serious money or having an entire career where you can fill out arenas and stuff just from social networks. But that is there now. And when you've got AI on your side as well, if you use it responsibly, you can do some pretty amazing things. I don't think we should be scared of AI. I think that we should work out how to use it responsibly.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
You have to go back to the days of blogging. So early 2000s, early days of the internet, really, people start off, I don't know, a dishwasher review website and they become very passionate about it. They do regular content updates. People find the blogs, read them, become trusted, these individuals who are doing the content.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And then eventually, of course, you'd get advertisers and product owners saying, oh, hang on a minute, that person's got an audience and they're a loyal, trusted audience. Why don't we get them to sponsor our product or get them to review our product. And then before you know it, you start getting a bit of money changing hands.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And then, of course, things really kicked off sort of 2004, 5, 6 with the rise of Facebook, when suddenly your blog becomes even bigger. And then we move into YouTube, and YouTube sort of took blogging to vlogging, and then people became very, very popular on YouTube, so brands came to them.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And the difference as well, and I think this is a really important inflection point in the whole of social media influencing, is that's when YouTube started paying back.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So if you were on there doing very, very well, you were getting paid by brands to influence what people bought. But also you were getting paid by YouTube for the views you got, which drives engagement, drives you doing more content, all the rest of it.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And then, of course, we're now in this era of all sorts of influencing, whether it be through sponsorships on brands or live appearances and fundraising. filling out, you know, halls and things for content creation in front of your audience, even lives at home that you can do on TikTok where people can gift you money as well. It's not just about selling products in advertising anymore.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
It's about having your whole content built around how can I bring in extra revenue?
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And the problem is you've started looking for it now. So now they'll be sending you these things for months.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
It depends on the platform. So, for example, if you're an influencer or a YouTuber on YouTube, then you will get sort of two different revenue streams, one from the video views that YouTube will pay you a share of the ad revenue. And the other one is from deals that you can do in your video.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So quite often you'll see people pause their video on YouTube and they'll say, hey, have you seen this new technology product? It's amazing. I've been using it for weeks. And then they carry on with the video after that. Whereas if you're on Instagram, there's no money back from the company.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They've been talking about whether or not to give money back, but it's about the brand sponsorships for your posts, for example, and people can earn a lot. So for example, Kim Kardashian, hundreds of millions of followers, she would probably be able to command hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even millions of dollars per post if she posts about a particular product.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And what we're seeing is more and more of these social networks are realising that if they can get the influencers on board, then they get the audiences on board. And that's what X, or formerly Twitter, is trying to do, is give money back to people who get decent engagement on the platform.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yes, all the people we've been talking about so far, they've all been real life human beings out there.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
That's a point we'll come to as well. You do wonder with some of these people. But anyway, an AI influencer is a creation that's been built by humans in a studio or by an individual hobbyist or something that doesn't exist. So they'll be posting pictures on usually Instagram or occasionally a bit of video, potentially maybe on TikTok.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And they'll be living a life as if they're a real person, but they're not. They are an artificial intelligence machine. created product i suppose and that's the reason why this is happening now is because of this rise of generative ai so it's now so simple and easy to make almost well yeah photorealistic images of people that don't exist
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
She was created by a studio in Barcelona called the Clueless Agency. And the story goes that they were becoming a bit fed up with the kind of diva attitude of some of the influencers they were being asked to work with on adverts or sponsorship deals, that kind of thing.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So they decided to start playing around with artificial intelligence and loaded up things like, for example, stable diffusion, which is a text image generator. So you can type in anything you want, wait a couple of seconds, and then the AI will produce a picture. And they thought, hang on, if we create our own model that can build her own following...
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
We can control the person or rather the creation completely. So they did and they started about a year ago. They created this very attractive sort of, if you can imagine what the Hollywood perfect body would be, that's kind of what Itana is. Chiselled cheekbones. Chiselled cheekbones, very slim, all the rest of it, you know. And she's got very distinctive long pink hair.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And that, apparently, according to the creators, is one of the reasons why she really stands out. And the thing about these pictures is they are very, very realistic. You would be hard pressed, really, to know the difference.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, I think some people, they might think, oh, I can tell straight away. But I think to the untrained eye, which is, to be honest, most of us, isn't it? You look at this person, you think, wow, OK, that's a real person.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Which is how 99% of people would come across Itana, exactly as you say, on a small screen like a phone.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
And you wouldn't really know it's AI. It's in the profile writing that this is an AI made creation. But Aitana doesn't just post. They don't just post pictures of Aitana. Do you see how I almost personified her there? You've got to be so careful with artificial intelligence. But they don't just post pictures of her. They have stories.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So on Facebook, you know, you have these things on your reels where you can post, you know, this is what I've been doing today. 10 seconds of her doing shopping, 10 seconds of her out for lunch with friends.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
That's so interesting. I had a chat with them when I was there saying, are you going to age her? Is she going to age sort of in real time? And they're still deciding whether or not to keep her as a sort of mid-twenties or whether or not to age her. Yeah, so it's this whole idea of her being not just a model, but an influencer.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
So that is someone who lives a life of glamour, of fun, of luxury products. Because, of course, as an influencer, that is crucial.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
If you're going to be an influencer that posts about your boring life where you don't do anything, no one's going to want to sponsor that. You're not going to hold many Louis Vuitton bags and stuff like that.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, and that was interesting when we were in Barcelona because we went out on a shoot with them and they talked us through the process of how they take pictures of nothing and then pictures with someone on the team and then they just swap out the person for Aitana. And it's so sophisticated, this artificial intelligence machine they've built.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They wouldn't say exactly which piece of software it is, but we can imagine it's... sort of stable diffusion plus others. They are open source, of course, so anyone can download those and tweak them and use them. And they wrote in Aitana on a sunny day enjoying so-and-so in the park. Press to go.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Yeah, very picturesque already. But the software made about 25 different variations of Aitana in that position.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Different poses, different outfits. At one point, for some reason, it put a leather hat on her head and the team started laughing because they were like, oh, Aitana would never wear that.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Which made me laugh because, of course, she doesn't exist.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
Well, that's the one they always come back to is the fact that they are fully in control of this person. They can run her ragged because she doesn't exist. But I think there's also an element here of the novelty factor, because there are some brands out there who know that Aitana is AI, know that she's got this almost iconic background of how she created and how she's become so famous.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
We should say as well, she's got 335,000 followers on Instagram. So she is As far as I could find, the most popular, this new wave of realistic looking models. So there's the novelty element, but there's also the fact that she looks how she looks, that are really getting people excited. And she's done a lot of brand deals.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They reckon they make thousands of dollars a month through advertising and sponsorship with her. The best they've done is 10,000 a month.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
100%, yeah. I think if you look at the pictures of Aitana, and it has to be said there are others like her out there that are AI-generated models and influencers, they're all very sexualised. They're all very slim women with big breasts and they all act and look in certain sort of coquettish ways. There is very much a male gaze running through this kind of
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
art or culture, whatever you want to call it. And there are some pretty heavy critics about this because, of course, already with influencers, we see perfect lives, particularly Instagram, being displayed to us. People are super slim.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They use very clever lighting to make themselves look even better or angles, you know, and then you have this extra level that's now coming in of artificially generated women who are looking an unattainable level of traditional attractiveness.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
They said they have because the two things that this agency in particular does is they do Itana, which is an influencer, brand sponsorship deals, that kind of thing. But they also do bespoke AI creations for brands. And they said to me that they have tried to do kind of more curvy models, for example, or different diverse looks.
Global News Podcast
The Global Story: The AI models invading our feeds
But really, according to them, the advertisers only want the traditional Hollywood style woman because that's what gets the most eyeballs.