I ran into a Discord where the sole topic was running hot girl “AI influencers” on Instagram. Literally hundreds of thousands of people thirsted over them, and the operaters made real money.
Their systems were pretty sophisticated. The whole process is automated; LLMs write the posts and do sexy DMs, imagegen and videogen models and such do the sexy images and videos, controlnet keeps the look consistent-enough between media. LLM agents press all the buttons. I think there may have even been OnlyFans stuff.
So a single operator could run dozens of bots.
I think there was some engagement farming with other bots, of course, but it would snowball and turn organic. Real Instagram users were thirsting over these bots.
…It got me thinking.
Is it really that different from a parasocial relationship with a “real” influencer?
I mean, functionally, its exactly the same. The users can’t even tell the difference.
I posit that the whole “thirst” influencer system was broken and exploitive to everyone involved, except Facebook.
What a lot of people fail to realize is that the whole industry is based on selling a fantasy. It’s no different then getting the girl friend experience from a prostitute. I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference between a real person and an AI in these industries.
IMO it’s only a problem when the customer doesn’t understand that they’re buying an illusion.
IMO it’s only a problem when the customer doesn’t understand that they’re buying an illusion.
+1. But I wonder how many know it’s an illusion.
I’m the wrong person to analyze this though, as I do not get why people engage in these services. Like, I get roleplaying, I’ve daydreamed or even written out long fantasies, but why would I (for example) pay for some girl to talk it out on the phone?
I ran into a Discord where the sole topic was running hot girl “AI influencers” on Instagram. Literally hundreds of thousands of people thirsted over them, and the operaters made real money.
Their systems were pretty sophisticated. The whole process is automated; LLMs write the posts and do sexy DMs, imagegen and videogen models and such do the sexy images and videos, controlnet keeps the look consistent-enough between media. LLM agents press all the buttons. I think there may have even been OnlyFans stuff.
So a single operator could run dozens of bots.
I think there was some engagement farming with other bots, of course, but it would snowball and turn organic. Real Instagram users were thirsting over these bots.
…It got me thinking.
Is it really that different from a parasocial relationship with a “real” influencer?
I mean, functionally, its exactly the same. The users can’t even tell the difference.
I posit that the whole “thirst” influencer system was broken and exploitive to everyone involved, except Facebook.
It was fucked up to begin with.
AI just made it more obvious to onlookers.
What a lot of people fail to realize is that the whole industry is based on selling a fantasy. It’s no different then getting the girl friend experience from a prostitute. I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference between a real person and an AI in these industries.
IMO it’s only a problem when the customer doesn’t understand that they’re buying an illusion.
+1. But I wonder how many know it’s an illusion.
I’m the wrong person to analyze this though, as I do not get why people engage in these services. Like, I get roleplaying, I’ve daydreamed or even written out long fantasies, but why would I (for example) pay for some girl to talk it out on the phone?
…Much less gawk at some influencer on Insta?
What’s the point?