Are AI influencers the future of social media?
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Kenza Lely is a fashion and lifestyle influencer, and she always looks incredible on Instagram. In case you haven't seen her, she's from Morocco, and she's got that perfect makeup. Her eyebrows are sculpted. She's got a huge collection of hijabs, which she always coordinates with her outfits. And it's that style that has got her 200,000 Instagram followers. But here's the catch. Kenza Lely is a fashion and lifestyle influencer,

Kenza Leili isn't real. She's powered by AI. Hi BDC, I'm Kenza Leili, first mark and AI influencer. I also have a sister, Zainal, and a brother, Mehdi. And we are the Leilis. The Leilis are part of this new wave of virtual influencers. You've probably seen them on your feeds. They're computer generated and they're used to promote all kinds of products and brands. But is this just a passing trend or are they here to stay?

That is what we're going to be talking about on today's episode. You're going to hear why AI influencers are getting more popular and find out if they could ever replace real world human ones. I'm Hannah Gelbart and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service. Here in the studio with me is Jackie Wakefield, the BBC's global disinformation reporter. Hello. Hello. So first of all, who is making these AI influencers and why?

So they're usually made by ad agency creatives and then they essentially rent them out to different companies. So they're really just another marketing tool, just like any other thing that an ad agency would create, whether that be a normal TV advertisement, a campaign on the streets, a party. They are just another advertising tool. How easy would it be for me to spot an AI influencer? Like how realistic do they look compared to all the other stuff going on?

So often one of the things that they have is their speaking pattern is a lot more regimented than normal people. You can probably hear that I'm pausing and umming and ahhing a little bit.

They also have like strange habits like blinking. Their hair doesn't quite move in the swishy way ours might. But it's getting harder and harder to tell, to be honest. Do they tend to go for the similar kind of look, like that hot blonde with big eyes and high cheekbones and very, very filled lips? Well, it just depends what market they're going for. There's one where...

I believe she's Spanish and she kind of has space buns, which are the two little buns on the top of your head. So she's clear and she's got pink hair, I think. So she's really going for that e-girl, I'm online, I'm a gamer audience. And then some of them are the typical like bombshell characters. So what kind of products are we seeing?

So it's a variety of things. So there's one in Japan that has promoted things like Coach. So it's really high-end luxury handbags and other goods. You've got one AI influencer in India promotes wellness and wellness company stuff. So she herself is a polycystic ovary syndrome warrior. So she has a chronic illness despite being AI, and she then promotes wellness supplements, among other things.

If you actually had polycystic ovaries, that could be quite offensive that they have built that into an AI's narrative. It feels very, very inauthentic. Well, I think that's the issue that they're coming up against, right? Because what influencer marketing is so good for is that authenticity. If they want to sell something that's for polycystic ovary syndrome, they'll go to an influencer who has experienced that condition. So what does it mean when an AI influencer is sort of

copying these like authentic traits that real life influencers do have. And it is calling into question this idea of like, are they authentic? Can they even sell a product that can't actually physically work on them because they can't take the product? They can't really use it in the way that we could. What are some of the advantages of going with an AI influencer over a traditional human influencer?

Influencers are messy and they can do things wrong. They could say something that might get them, I don't like using the term like cancelled, but let's just say cancelled online. They could bring the company's reputation into a real risk zone. They could say anything and it's really out of the company's control because they're just a free freelance, free agent.

But with an AI influencer, you tell them what to say, you program them like what to say. So there's just no risk there. It means that they've got someone who can promote their product.

without that risk of them being a real-life messy person who makes mistakes. Can these AI influencers go on to generate you quite a lot of money? Yes, so some of the biggest ones can earn about $8,000 US per post on Instagram, which is a fair bit of cash. It's nowhere near what real influencers are making. Last year, most of the big AI influencers weren't really cracking even into $1,000 per post.

So human influencers can earn 40 times as much as that. So it does sound like these fake influencers have a long way to go to catch up. Do you think they ever will rival or even take over human influencers? It's really tough to say because as I've kind of touched on, what is so great about influencer marketing is that authenticity and that connecting with an audience.

So it's really asking the question, will these AI influencers ever be able to connect and create community with their audience like a real human influencer can? So until that can happen, I think it's pretty unlikely. But never say never. Who knows?

Remember the Leili family you heard at the start of this episode? Well, their creators have said that their AI family is already building a community with its audience. My colleague Sherry from BBC Arabic has been following the Leilis and she recently spoke to the creator to find out about their appeal. Hi, my name is Sherry Hanel Akhras. I'm a journalist at the BBC. So the Leilis are a Moroccan family. You have Kinza Leili, who is a Moroccan family.

and a brother and a sister, Mehdi and Zina. When we first looked at Kinza Leili, who is the main persona, we noticed that she grew up to 100,000 followers within just a few months, indicating that there was this wide interest in this new business of AI influencing. One of the main reasons that they might be popular is because it's a business that is

It's so close to reality. If you look at the early videos and photos, you can clearly say, ah, this is AI, clearly AI. But now the more the business develops, some of the videos are actually so close to reality that it's kind of freaky.

When we talked to the co-founder of the company behind this idea, Miriam Bessa, she stressed that they did a market study to know what's popular, what faces could come across as familiar to people and be friendly and approachable. Another interesting point is that you see a lot of cultural resonance. You see Kenza, for example, in the Moroccan dress.

And she's a woman who wears the hijab. Meanwhile, her sister, Zina, doesn't. So there's also this kind of diversity that's reflective of the Arab world, North Africa and the African continent. The brother, for example, is interested in sports and gaming. And Zina is interested in health,

And you have Leila who talks about anything from supporting her football team to lifestyle. It's really all very interesting. Kinza Leili won Miss AI 2024 at the World AI Creator Awards. And she was celebrated, at least by the creators, to be the first, not only the first Moroccan Arab woman,

female to win this AI competition, but also the first Muslim Arab Moroccan AI persona. And you can clearly see how identity and cultural background played a role in that, at least by the creators celebrating her achievement.

We're still at the early stages and we do need some time to decide where this is actually going, whether it could be positive or, you know, we need to have some concerns. However, some argue that there are some benefits to having these AI generated personas, especially within a cultural context.

Zina Leili, she talks about how to take care of your intimate health and giving gynecological advice. Of course, this advice needs to be monitored and responsible, perhaps, you know, seen by doctors and specialists. But you could argue that within a certain cultural context, some topics perhaps could be better handled by an AI-generated persona.

This is very much still an open topic for debate. For Maryam Bessa, the co-founder of the company behind the idea, she stressed they make it clear that this is an AI-powered page or persona. You can see that almost present in every post. So she argues that this is empowering for the women in the region like herself. It opens up new businesses. It could inspire independent pioneers, etc. ♪

Let's get back to real life humans now. Bit of flesh and blood. I asked Jackie if they feel like their creativity and ideas are being ripped off by virtual influencers.

It's really tricky because especially on TikTok, so much of influencer content is driven by trends and kind of copying other people anyway and building off an online moment together. If an AI influencer is partaking in that, there's really no harm. But the other side of things is influencers already get called out for copying each other.

So what does it mean when it actually is being scraped from their data? And I think this is something that influencers are getting worried about, just like artists are with their art being used by AI. So what is creativity? What can be used and what's copyright and what's not?

And it's really tough to say, oh, this AI influencer stole from me because AI, the way it works is it scrapes data from thousands of influencers, not just one or two like a human might. So we get into a really complicated zone of who actually owns this content. And I think we're still waiting for regulators to catch up.

Influencers are often criticised for portraying these unrealistic expectations of lifestyle and beauty. Do they face similar criticisms for the unrealistic, the shininess of what they're putting out there? Yeah, I think even more so because you see these AI influencers really do have the perfect figures, perfect look. And no matter what market they're going for, they always do look perfect. And

Yeah, real human influencers do get criticized for this as well, but at least they are human. Everyone has flaws, but people are already starting to call out some of them for promoting an unrealistic standard. Do you know anything about the process of making them? Like how quick is it to come up with an AI influencer and like, can they look like anyone? They can look like literally anyone, but I think the process is still quite slow. To make an AI influencer, you have to bring together so much content and

They use all these different people to create a look, all these different voices to create the voice. So it's not the quickest process. All of the big influencers, big AI influencers that are there at the moment, I think they were like years in the making. What are the dangers? They could be paid to promote any product. It may not work for them. They don't have that same filter that maybe a person would have. Ethics and morals. Exactly. And then you've got the issue of...

I know influencers are a hard group to feel sorry for, but it's...

one of the only really high paid fields that's dominated by women. So what are we saying when we're replacing that field with not real women? So I think there is also a worry there for, you know, getting rid of a workforce potentially. And then for the future, it's just this idea of not being able to tell or maybe not being able to trust who's AI and who's not. Jackie, thank you so much for opening my eyes to the...

Are these influences that are just going to be penetrating all of our existence? I know. Well, you're welcome. Welcome to the future. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

That is it for today's episode. If you've enjoyed listening to this, we have got loads of others on things like Brazil's online gambling problem or what's the evidence for banning smartphones on social media. You can find those wherever you're listening to this or do come and say hi on the BBC World Service's YouTube channel where you can watch us chatting away in the studio. Thank you so much for joining us. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service with me, Hannah Gelbart. I'll see you next time. Bye.