Recent headlines on various blogs, X.com, and even traditional media outlets have commented on a digital marketing agency in Spain turning to the use of an AI-generated human as a social media influencer for their campaign, with the comment that they are easier to work with and more cost effective than traditional influencers.
A few thoughts come to my mind. Firstly, it remains amazing how AI is quickly mastering the creative tasks that were believed to inherently human. Not long ago, many experts believed that creativity and emotion-driven tasks, such as those undertaken by social influencers, would be the last frontier for AI to conquer, with more monotonous, repetitive, and menial tasks being the first to be taken over by AI. Yet, here we are, witnessing AI’s proficiency in writing, image creation, and video production….
While the advantages of AI personas are apparent from the digital marketing agency’s perspective, their long-term success is, in my opinion, uncertain. After all, isn’t the appeal of influencers largely due to our capacity to empathize with them? We share in their emotions, we resonate with their actions on social media, and we often visualize ourselves in their shoes. This raises questions about whether, in the long run, influencers will find their whole industry deflated, with real-life influencers competing with artificial ones. The users may not necessarily know who is real and who isn’t. Ultimately, the industry as a whole may arguably suffer, with users no longer getting the value from building an empathetic link.
What’s particularly striking is the simplicity with which one can now create a consistent AI character—something that was nearly impossible a year ago.
Let me break it down for you one of the many very concise methods you can use to create your own AI influencer:
Generate your character:
Visit fal.ai/models. If you haven’t already, register for an account.
Look for “Stable Diffusion XL” Of course, you can use any image generation tool you prefer, such as Midjourney or DALL-E 3.
Begin crafting descriptions for your influencer. You can also use ChatGPT for idea generation.
Here’s my choice: “A young Korean woman with colorful rainbow locks flowing around her statement-making outfit. Her bold punk style, from the studded jacket and choker necklace to the fishnet sleeves and accessories, is captured with photorealistic detail against a white background.”
An intermediate step could be to enhance and upscale the image further. I have found this particularly beneficial when some facial features appear unrealistic or out of shape. For this purpose, I recommend using Krea, which has produced the best results for me. To do so, go to Krea.ai, select “enhance and upscale,” upload your picture, and experiment until you achieve the desired result.
The next step is to choose a new pose. Visit https://generated.photos/human-generator. Here, you can use various menus to define your pose – you can either create it yourself or add details in the text prompt. Upload the picture of your character and click “generate.” Please wait a few minutes for the results.
By following these steps, you’ll be on your way to creating a virtual influencer who may become the next digital sensation.
