- Why do you consider this synthetic media?
- Over the past few years, as I scroll through my instagram I have occasionally come across some Virtual Influencers in my feed. Sometimes they’re easy to spot - they look like computer generated (but well rendered) video game characters. Other times they’re so realistic looking that they verge on the uncanny. They “post” on their instagrams as though they’re any normal influencer, but instead it’s a team of people training the model to move and pose and speak, and then posting on their behalf.
- What can you find about how this was made (if you can)? If it’s machine learning based can you find information about the data set used to train it?
- Of the ones I have encountered through previous work experience, the models are created like video game models and trained in the game engines (I think Unreal). They then used AI to train the model to have a conversation and answer basic questions from voice input from a user like “How are you?” and “What are you wearing?” (for an influencer being used for a fashion event).
- Here is the link to the Virtual Influencer is briefly worked with at a previous job (as a collab, I did not actually work with her): https://www.kuki.ai/
- What are the ethical ramifications of this specific example (if any)?
- With current recession trends showing marketing budgets decreasing for many people, having a virtual influencer to work with may mean they have to pay less than for a human influencer
- Users can also start to form attachments to these realistic looking influencers, which isn’t so different from characters from narrative media and celebrities and human influencers, which can have negative emotional responses for some people
Lil Miquela, a virtual influencer and Instagram star.
Interesting article from 9/26/22: https://accelerationeconomy.com/metaverse/how-virtual-influencers-impact-digital-natives/
Virtual Influencers in the fashion marketing world: https://www.virtualhumans.org/article/virtual-influencers-are-the-future-of-fashion