Dec 312023
 

Well, *some* of our jobs:

AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans

Pink-haired Aitana Lopez is followed by more than 200,000 people on social media. She posts selfies from concerts and her bedroom, while tagging brands such as hair care line Olaplex and lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret.

Brands have paid about $1,000 a post for her to promote their products on social media—despite the fact that she is entirely fictional.

So… do we care?

If we are an influencer, sure. But this is one of the more socially worthless “jobs” out there. They add nothing to society; they learn few skills or trades useful for other more practical forms of employment. If all “influencers” were suddenly unemployed, there’d be tens/hundreds of thousands of talentless hacks suddenly dumped into the job market, competing for burger flipper roles against millions of new migrant voters. Sucks for them, I suppose.

 

But after the “influencers” will come the TV news anchors, actors, singers. Some have argued that people will prefer actual humans to AI for such things, but evidence is mounting to the contrary. And at some point soon (if not already)  it’ll be impossible to tell the difference, and *very* difficult to confirm that an AI isn’t real, especially if those controlling it want people to think said AI is a real person.

 

 Posted by at 7:38 pm