Spot The Virtual Influencers Infiltrating Social Media Sites

Berlin: This pink-haired artist and influencer says she doesn't sleep for a second after spending a long time in the office.

"I've filmed great stuff. Don't tell anyone I haven't showered yet," he adds, staring at his laptop, dressed in a tracksuit, pen in hand, surrounded by magazines.

What Ima's photos don't reveal is that she is the Japanese she appears to be. In fact, it was not human.

Watch the video and it becomes even clearer that it was done on the computer.

Aww Inc, the founder of Imma, claims to be Japan's first virtual model.

He's not the only one online. Many others have appeared on various social networks, especially in Asia. As real models, they can be found on the covers of fashion magazines, in advertisements, and sometimes on concert stages, attracting thousands of viewers.

To facilitate the optical illusion surrounding Iman, she often shares photos of herself with real people on social media.

More recently, for example, he appeared with Spanish cartoonist Joan Cornella at an exhibition in Tokyo, or with DJ Steve Aoki and reggaeton star Maluma.

Plus, Emma shares her feelings with her 400,000 followers as she travels from one fashion city to another.

"Since I was born I've hated being alone," she lamented, donning a large hoodie and holding a black umbrella beneath a photo. "What do you do when you're alone?"

In another post, he opened up about his feud with his brother.

These emotional expressions suggest that Emma's creators are pushing the boundaries of what we expect from cyberspace, consciously portraying their characters as vulnerable and making personal connections.

If her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers are any indication, it seems to be working.

When asked about the emotional world that Ima created, her creator told dpa that even real agents are often accused of leading fake lives on the internet.

Because people live so much in digital spaces, the lines between reality and reality are constantly blurring, according to the company.

"Everything we see online and in the media is a narrative and everyone has a choice to believe it or not."

But such sensitivity on the part of artificially created beings is deeply problematic, says Oliver Zollner, a media analyst at the Institute for Digital Ethics in Stuttgart.

I wanted to have more clarity on the programs they were using. "Not everyone immediately recognizes that virtual influencers are not real people," said the dpa's Zollner.

"Not everyone knows the business model behind the use of my data," he added.

Zollner sees this as a form of exploitation that goes deep into the human body.

According to Virtualhumans.org, Virtual Influencers is controlled by a behind-the-scenes team led by industry experts.

For example, during motion capture, Emma lives in a studio with other actors.

However, some virtual influencers involve real artificial intelligence, such as Cookie Eye, which uses a chatbot to communicate with fans on its website.

But on social networks, cookies still need to be controlled by real people, says virtualhumans.org.

Imaginary influence can not only express feelings, but also take a position on an issue. Lil Mikaela, one of the most popular virtual influencers, is not only successful as a musician and face of major fashion companies, but also as an activist. He has the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on his Instagram profile.

In one post, the 19-year-old immortalized her 2.8 million followers with an image of Kyle drawing tears down her face along with the caption "Normalize ugly crying in public."

It is unclear if fans took this as true or not. Regardless, Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential people online in 2018, along with former US President Donald Trump and pop icon Rihanna.

What is certain is that Emma, ​​Lil Mikaela and company have a distinct advantage over their flesh and blood competitors, namely that they produce weird people and are cheap.

On the other hand: “Even if you spend time with them as a person, you get used to it quickly. And they can get bored quickly,” says Zollner.

Looking ahead, Zollner sees tech companies inviting people into virtual spaces as a sign that "we need to interact with each other and with virtual personalities in a variety of ways."

He added that it is up to people to create something useful for society from such technical possibilities. - DPA

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