미등록후보 지지 발언까지...AI 인플루언서, 美 대선에도 영향 미칠까? [팩트매터]

With the 2024 election cycle now in full swing, there's something important that you need to know. That is actually not me. And actually, actually, that is not me either, because I'm standing right here. You see, this is just the new reality of living in the age of AI influencers. Fake AI-generated people who completely do not exist in the real world are now amassing huge social media followings. They're making millions of dollars in brand deals. They're appearing in commercials. They're starting their own product lines. They're appearing at the Olympics. They're getting jobs at TV stations. And they're endorsing presidential candidates. All right, so this is the real me now. But it's hard to tell for sure, because the technology around AI has just gotten so good. So good, in fact, that it might actually sway upcoming elections. Although, in order to explain why, let me give you the full backstory here. We are right now fully in the throes of the 2024 election cycle. And we're beginning to get inundated with endorsements from both celebrities as well as from social media influencers. And these endorsements, they don't just happen by chance. Behind the scenes, you can be sure that within both camps, both within the Trump camp as well as within the Harris camp, there are people who are dedicated to reaching out to influencers in order to get those coveted endorsements. And the reason that the influencer endorsement is so coveted, it's really exemplified with the case of Taylor Swift. Politically, Taylor Swift is vocally anti-Trump and pro-Biden. And last year, she posted a message on Instagram urging her hundreds of millions of followers to register for the upcoming 2024 presidential race. Here's part of what that post read. Quote, I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my shows recently. I've heard you raise your voices and I know how powerful they are. Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year. And then right below, she included a link to vote.org. And about an hour after she made that post, vote.org, they reported seeing a 1,226% increase in their web traffic. And that one single day, they registered over 35,000 new voters, which was the most since the year 2020. This one case really does exemplify the power that a celebrity influencer endorsement possesses. There's a reason that social media influencers charge hundreds of thousands or sometimes even millions of dollars per post. It's because they really do have the power to influence people to take real world action. Now, to you watching this program, I'm sure that the idea of voting for someone based on a celebrity endorsement might just sound ridiculous. But it's an absolutely real thing. It's a powerful campaign weapon that's used by both sides. It's exactly why you had Amber Rose give a speech at the RNC and Deja Fox give a speech at the DNC. Many people, they just vote based on their feels and based on who their peer group is voting for. And so with that in mind, let me show you who's going to be influencing the future of this country. Up on your screen right now is a fascinating survey of Gen Z. It's a report from the Morning Consult, and it's based on a survey of over 3,000 U.S. adults with a specific focus on adults age 18 to 21. They call And they asked these Gen Z adults to name one celebrity, one athlete, or one social media influencer that they would trust to recommend a product. You can see the results of that survey up on your screen. The list was full of household names you've probably heard of before with a few notable exceptions. The name mentioned most frequently by these Gen Z adults was someone named Jeffree Star. It's a drag queen with almost 16 million YouTube subscribers specializing in He was the most influential of all the influencers. You also had Tati Westbrook, a makeup artist with a YouTube channel that has about 8 million subs. You had James Charles, who has over 23 million YouTube subs specializing in also things like makeup and fashion videos, as well as Mr. Shane Dawson, a YouTuber with nearly 19 million subscriptions. All four of them generate hundreds of thousands, if not probably millions of dollars each year in ad revenue from their massive online followings. However, like most famous internet people, at some point, they've recently become embroiled in controversy, allegations of racism, sexual misconduct, untoward behavior, the full gamut. You can see the headlines up on your screen right now. We're not going to dive through all the back and forth allegations here. But the point is that there's drama. And this type of drama is what makes influencers such a volatile marketing commodity. Because on the one hand, they're definitely able to reach and influence the younger generation, perhaps better than anyone else. But on the other hand, they're prone to these scandals that can hurt the brands that they wind up partnering with. However, what if, what if you can take advantage of the marketing benefits that an influencer represents without any of the potential for scandal? What if you can have the best of both worlds? Well, now you can. Advancements in AI technology have given birth to an entire industry of AI influencers. And major brands, they're not only taking notice, but they're definitely jumping on the bandwagon with millions of dollars in tow. I mean, these virtual influencers, they have something that real people could never have. They come with absolutely no baggage. They have no history that can be dredged up and used against them. And furthermore, every aspect of their very existence is perfectly curated to fit a certain profile and a certain narrative. But even better than that, AI influencers, they are not bound by physical limitations, meaning that companies can make them do pretty much anything, anywhere, at any time. They never age, meaning that they can be instantly recognizable forever as brand ambassadors, essentially for life. And perhaps the most valuable feature is that AI influencers, they can reply to every comment and every message on every one of their posts, which of course has the effect of developing a deeper relationship with their followers, as ironic as that sounds. These six elements are exactly what make these AI influencers such a safer option for companies that are seeking to market their products to the latest Gen Z generation. And I should mention that this is not science fiction, unfortunately. Over the last several years, you have real AI influencers, which have gone from mere entities on social media platforms to now earning thousands of dollars per post to them becoming full-blown brands themselves. One of the first virtual influencers to gain widespread recognition is this one right here, Michaela Sosa, a.k.a. Little Michaela, first appearing in the year 2016. She's now amassed over 2.5 million followers on Instagram, and it's been reported that she rakes in over $10 million per year in brand deals with campaigns for companies like Frada and Calvin Klein, $10 million per year. Can you imagine? I'm out here hustling. I'm a real human. I've got nothing. Here's, in fact, a clip featuring her in an ad for Calvin Klein. Life is about opening doors. Here's another clip featuring her in a commercial for Samsung. Everything seemed unimaginable when I was just a few lines of code. I love creating new things, achieving the impossible. That's what being part of Team Galaxy is all about. Team Galaxy. And by the way, for these different brands, you might think it's ridiculous, but it's an absolute steal. She can reach literally millions of people, but reportedly, she only charges around $10,000 per post, which is a fraction of what a real person with a similar-sized audience might charge. In 2018, she was voted one of Time Magazine's top 25 most influential people on the internet. And then in March 2020, she released a breakup song about her virtual boyfriend that has over 7 million views. That's on top of another song that reached Spotify's top 10 playlist. And she's also been featured in many prominent magazines over the last several years, many of which highlight her multifaceted career as a model, a singer, as well as an activist. And I say activist because that's exactly what she is. She's an advocate for transgender rights. She's urged her fans to donate to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. She took strong stances on DACA, as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline. She has a Black Lives Matter slogan prominently in her bio, and so on and so on. In fact, her thoughts on the subject were summarized quite succinctly in a 2018 interview that Michaela gave to Nylon Magazine. Here's what she said, quote, life in Los Angeles is this duality of endless opportunity and desperation on every street corner. To watch trans women be brutalized, to watch people of color struggle to be heard. There are so many people who need help, and I'm trying to use my platform to do that. And so you see, an AI influencer, they can really tick off all the boxes. She has a massive following on social media. She's able to influence many people to donate money to buy products and to take action. She's an activist for whatever cause happens to be in vogue. And there's pretty much no chance of a scandal. She basically has all the upsides of being an influencer without any of the downsides. And again, little Michaela is not a one-off. She was just the first one to become massively popular. And also, they're not all left-leaning. For instance, this right here is Bermuda. She's a self-described robot queen who was a proud Trump supporter. Although for some reason, she later switched gears and renounced her support for Trump. Another popular account is this one here, Ema, a Japanese AI influencer who has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and gets millions of views on her videos on TikTok. She's appeared in commercials for things like Magnum ice cream, soda water, Amazon, and many other large brands. In fact, here's a commercial that she did for IKEA during the height of the COVID lockdowns when other actors were not allowed to record videos because of lockdown safety precautions. She also appeared at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games during the closing ceremony. And after garnering such a large following as well as getting mainstream recognition, Ema now has her own website wherein she sells her own line of merchandise as well as her own line of clothing. This launch was actually a substantial shift for AI influencers who up until that point were only the face of other brands. Ema, however, now has her own brand. Another AI influencer of note is this one here, Una. She first appeared in You can see her right there, featured prominently on the website of her modeling agency. In a quote-unquote interview with FIV magazine, Una said that being an AI influencer has its benefits, such as always looking young, but it also has its downsides, like how it's difficult to integrate your real-life experiences into your content when you don't have any real-life experiences. And then, of course, during that same interview, she also warned about the importance of paying attention to sustainability as well as environmental awareness, likely because she will ultimately not be the one forced to eat bugs. Regardless, though, even though Una's online profile isn't as large as some of the other influencers we've discussed thus far, she has recently broken a glass ceiling that no other AI influencer broke before. She now works at a German TV station. She is the digital reporter for a program called Red wherein she reports on the latest in lifestyle trends, in celebrity news, and she actually conducts interviews with celebrities over FaceTime, meaning that she's essentially coming for my job. Another one of these AI influencers is named Aitana. She is Spain's first AI model, and Aitana really represents a jumping level of realism. In fact, her social media posts are so authentic-looking that her handlers have apparently been receiving a lot of private messages from real celebrities who are trying to slip into her DMs and meet her in real life, not knowing that she doesn't exist. And like many of the other AI influencers we've mentioned thus far, her growth has been rather quick. In under one year, and only after just 100 posts on Instagram, she was able to attract 325,000 followers. And really, her meteoric rise in popularity was not by happenstance, and it didn't happen by accident. Here's in fact how her creator, Mr. Ruben Cruz, who not only created her but also founded the Clueless Model Agency, here's what he said during a recent interview on the topic of this Aitana model. Quote, Aitana was created out of necessity because of the difficulty of finding models during COVID. A lot of thought has gone into Aitana. We created her based on what society likes most. We thought about the tastes, hobbies, and niches that have been trending in recent years. And so, what could possibly be better? An influencer who is tailor-made based on the prevailing trends to become massively popular, which is the strategy that this particular agency will be using going forward to create more of these AI models. Quote, at the Clueless, we are not just an AI modeling agency. We are visionaries on a mission to redefine the world of influencers. Our goal is to transcend the conventional realm of modeling and lead the way in influencing, ushering in a new era characterized by authenticity, impact, and deep meaning. And indeed, Aitana has been such a success for them that her designers have already created two new models called Maya and Lia. And apparently, this is a direction that brands are really interested in going, given the fact that this particular agency has apparently been inundated with requests from brands who want their own personalized model. In fact, here's again what the founder of the Clueless modeling agency said during an interview. Quote, they, meaning the brands, want to have an image that is not a real person and that represents their brand values so that there are no continuity problems if they have to fire someone or can no longer count on them. And so, you see, with big brand money starting to pour in, well, you can definitely expect to see a lot more of these virtual influencers pop up in the very near future. And furthermore, besides just the influx of millions of dollars worth of advertising, there's also hundreds of billions of dollars in capital which is flowing to the AI sector as a whole. And so, the technology underlining this whole thing will only get better. And perhaps, maybe a year or two, these AI influencers, they won't just be relegated to posting pre-rendered images and videos. And instead, they'll be able to interact with real people in real time. In fact, right now, there's already a company called Delphi which allows people to make AI clones of themselves who can then go on Zoom calls, those clones can take meetings, and they can even give interviews in lieu of the actual original person. Over in Fox Business, the co-founder of this company of Delphi, they did an interview alongside their AI clone and here's how it looked. The purpose of having a clone is to scale your unique way of thinking and interacting. It allows you to share your knowledge, experiences, and personality with others in a personalized way. This can be incredibly valuable for mentoring, teaching, or even just sharing your insights with a broader audience. Your clone can outlive you. It preserves your knowledge and personality, allowing future generations to learn from and interact with you. Imagine your great-great-grandkids building a relationship with you. What legacy would you want to leave behind? Now, obviously, it wasn't perfect. His mouth was moving a little strangely and his answers were a little bit too scripted, Chad GPT style, but you can really imagine what another one, two, three, or definitely four years will do to this particular technology. But I mean, even without these realistic clones that can give real-world interviews, the AI influencers that we already have, the ones that we already discussed, are a proof of concept in and of themselves. And the impact that these virtual influencers are already having on the population, especially the young population, is noteworthy. In fact, there was a recent study of consumers in the U.S. that was conducted in March of 2022, and it found that 58% of respondents were following at least one virtual influencers. And that number, it was even higher for Gen Z, of whom 75% admitted to following at least one virtual influencer. And so obviously, the interest is already there, especially among the younger generation. And so there you have it. Perhaps it's not quite ready for this election, but let's say two years and definitely four years from now for the 2028 presidential race, you can definitely expect that AI influencers will play a major role in doling out endorsements. And perhaps more surprisingly, those AI endorsements might actually carry some weight. If you'd like to go through anything that we discussed in today's episode, such as that long list of the AI influencers who are already out there influencing the minds of Gen Z, I'll throw all those links down into the description box below this video for you to peruse at your own which I should mention is that same description box right below those like and subscribe buttons that I hope you smash, because I myself am a real human. I'm not tailor-made for this channel. And so I rely on you, the people who happen to like this content, to make sure that it grows and the channel grows. So I do hope you smash those buttons, leave comments, share with your friends and family. 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And you're subscribing real human influencers who apparently will be out of a job soon. So I hope you check it out. And then until next time, stay informed. And most importantly, stay free.