Her name is Lil Miquela. She has millions of Instagram followers, has “worked” with brands like Prada and Samsung, and was named one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People on the Internet. She has a backstory, political opinions, and friends. The only thing she doesn’t have is a pulse.
Miquela is a virtual influencer—a computer-generated character designed to live a life, and sell products, on social media. She and others like her represent a strange and rapidly growing frontier in marketing, technology, and culture. Are they a harmless gimmick, or are they fundamentally changing our relationship with reality online? This is the full story on the world of fake celebrities and their very real fans.
What is a Virtual Influencer?
A virtual or AI influencer is a digital character created using computer-generated imagery (CGI). These characters are given unique personalities, aesthetics, and narratives. They exist on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where they post about their (fictional) lives, interact with followers, and promote products just like any human influencer.
They are not simply avatars or filters; they are complex digital puppets managed by teams of artists, writers, and marketers who craft every aspect of their identity. The goal is to create a character so compelling that followers forget—or choose to ignore—that they aren’t real.
The Technology Behind the Avatars
Creating a believable virtual influencer is a blend of artistry and advanced technology. The process often involves:
- 3D Modeling: Artists use CGI software to design the character’s appearance, from their facial features to their fashion style.
- Motion Capture: To create realistic movement for videos, real human actors are sometimes used to perform actions, which are then mapped onto the digital character.
- Generative AI: Increasingly, artificial intelligence is used to help write their captions, respond to comments, and even generate parts of their backstories, making them feel more dynamic and interactive.
The level of technical sophistication can vary, but the end goal is always the same: to blur the line between the real and the digital just enough to make us suspend our disbelief.
The Business Model: Why Brands Are on Board
For global brands, virtual influencers offer a tantalizing proposition: influence without the influencer. The appeal comes down to control and novelty.
- Total Message Control: A virtual influencer will never go off-script, post something embarrassing, or have a hidden history of problematic behaviour surface. They are a brand-safe spokesperson.
- No Human Drama: They don’t get tired, demand a bigger contract, or have personal scandals that could tarnish a brand by association.
- 24/7 Availability: They can be “active” in multiple countries at once, at any time of day, without needing to rest.
This level of control is a marketer’s dream. It’s part of a broader trend where companies seek to manage consumer perception through carefully controlled channels, similar to how they use subtle packaging changes like shrinkflation to guide customer behaviour.
The Unsettling Questions
While the business case is clear, the ethical landscape is murky. The rise of fake celebrities raises real issues:
- Perpetuating Unrealistic Standards: If human influencers face criticism for promoting unattainable beauty standards, what about CGI characters who can be digitally perfected to an impossible degree?
- A New Level of Deception: When a character who doesn’t exist tells you they “love” a product, it pushes advertising into a new realm of inauthenticity. Can a line of code truly have an opinion?
- Appropriating Real Experiences: There have been several controversies where a virtual influencer’s storyline co-opted real human struggles, like poverty or assault, sparking backlash for turning genuine trauma into a fictional marketing ploy.
The Future is… Complicated
Virtual influencers are not just a gimmick; they are a permanent fixture of our digital landscape. They represent the convergence of entertainment, marketing, and artificial intelligence. They challenge our ideas about identity, celebrity, and what we consider “real” in an increasingly virtual world. Whether they will coexist with or eventually overshadow their human counterparts remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: our online world just got a lot weirder.