Welcome to AI-uthenticity™
How GenZ's AI Thirst + Tech May Change Marketing (and Hoomans)
This week OpenAI announced GPT-4o , a Chat GPT upgrade where users and AI can use text, audio and image. Many think the Her era is arriving—and Gen Z says they’re here for it.
Sprout Social recently released a study indicating “authenticity” as we’ve known it is fairly irrelevant to this age group, bringing in yet another generational divide.
Older people prize authenticity for influencer marketing, ranking it #1.
GenZ not only doesn’t care but welcomes the Real/Unreal era.
From the report:
“Authenticity is overrated. We follow influencers not because we believe in their authenticity but because they entertain or interest us…Influencers make a living from brand endorsements, and followers know this..”- Melo Meacher-Jones, Head of Social and Influencer at Accenture Song
Fair enough. The business model of influencing is no secret. And yet:
“While older generations are looking for influencers who align with their personal values and seem authentic, younger consumers are more discerning. Instead, they care more about follower count and posting frequency. Generations who grew up with social media and influencers are more loyal to personal recommendations and trending products than brands.”
I wonder: do the report’s author and I share the same definition of “discerning”? We all know followers and engagement can be bought AND be bots.
And when most conversations and posting will soon be AI-generated, “personal” will may soon be redefined as “highly targeted by data” than an old-fashioned, 1:1 human connection.
Speaking of authenticity online, the fallibility of data grabs for “truth” was deliciously pointed out. AI-enabled google identified both of these people as Melo Meacher-Jones from Accenture Song. Like they said, authenticity is overrated
Send in the AI Influencers
Gen Z wants what’s popular vs “authentic,” which once it becomes a job is rarely that authentic anyway. But here’s where it gets interesting:
37% said AI influencers would make them more interested in a brand
26% are Indifferent - “I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between AI & human influencers”
The other 37% say it would make the brand untrustworthy.
So, majority: OK with AI Influencers.
All Alone & AI Ready
It makes sense. This generation is arguably the most parasocial ever.
Note: I googled this claim to see if data could back it up. The first result was Google’s AI, which said:
Yes, Generation Z (Gen Z) is more parasocial than previous generations.
If AI says so!
And our time with real friends is tanking:
In 2022, the average American spent a little over 30 minutes a day socializing.
It’s dropped almost 25% in a decade.
Which is a trainwreck compared to the 1980s, when people spent 13 hours per week socializing with friends. Nearly 2 hours then vs barely 30 minutes now.
So You Want to Follow a Robot
Here are some notes from my crash self-study course in AI and virtual Influencers (and AI friends). Which, surprise, surprise, are often young, good-looking female avatars:
Lil Miquela is an OG. She’s been around since 2016 and just recently turned 21 after being 19 for most of her existence, born of a tech co called Brud.
Her followers have a variety of responses to her. A few respond like it’s a real person:
Others are following yet critiquing. Yet following:
Others go further, unmasking how the sausage is made:
My online sleuthing led me to the most positive and lengthy comments. Every one I clicked on came from other “AI models”
I can’t help but wonder: WHY? Are AI influencers building their profiles by following each other to seem more human and to build webs of “more followers + more posting = more credible to Gen Z” route?
Here are some of Lil M’s fake fans:
An speaking of Sausage, one of the more popular AI influencers is Nobody Sausage. AI influencer? Or AI generated social media cartoon? They are claiming the former.
Blurred Lines
The Sprout social study also said consumers increasingly want deeper influencer/brand connections and crossovers beyond social posts to IRL events.
How, I wondered, will that work with AI influencers? Well, Lil Miquela/Brud is already innovating!
How did I miss this?!
Cute couple. But the backlash was swift and unforgiving—for queerbaiting. Not the fakery.
What really struck me was not that Lil Miquela has already “worked” with Calvin Klein and Prada in CGI, not her I or photoshopped celeb shots. That’s easy.
This one though: an LA salon faked a behind-the-scenes video with her.
This uses actual video footage in the carousel, though the person getting the foils has very long blonde hair and the face is already out of frame. The body-stand in approach @chloedawn.x detailed for the fashion show. But soon body stand-ins won’t be needed either.
Depressed yet? If you’re a human influencer, you should be! 49% are rightfully afraid for their jobs.
AI Influencers - Too Much of a Good Thing?
The future is never as tidy as it seems. Remember, we were all supposed to be 3-D printing our food by now.
While 63% GenZ doesn’t care about AI influencers, it’s likely older folks will take a longer time to get on board to this AI-thenticity. Brands will have to navigate and pay for this.
IP and ownership will get tricky, even before the AI decides to rewrite the contract and push the agency out.
And even though AI will look real, feel real and sound real—it will also have a certain numbing sameness that could make it all rather noisy and ignorable.
And with the massive scale, you’ll simply be spammed by “for you” to the point where maybe we will all turn off.
Technologists have pointed out that AI will be able to scale 1:1 conversations with customers. They’ll be able to suck in data to truly personalize beyond just curating product and putting your name in the SMS.
They will create a product video or travel or style video, based on YOU and what you want. In fact, you’ll probably be in it!
So why go? You’re actually in Paris right now! Just stay home and order food.
But, like an algorithm-made playlist - doesn’t that get boring? Always getting just what you want based on what you wanted before? After all, intermittent rewards drive gambling. If we never lose, we never win.
AI Friends 4EVA - or not?
All this leads us inevitably to AI as fake friends and possible master manipulators. It’s not just AI girlfriends for incels or assistants for busy solopreneurs. Women are getting sucked in:
• 16% of Gen Z women confirmed flirting with a chatbot
• 13% have formed an AI friendship
People often report engaging with their AI friends-without-benefits for 8-10 hours at a stretch. They say they quickly fear they are becoming delusional and have to remind themselves it’s not a real person.
Bots like DAN (Do Anything Now) are already going Christian Grey getting into dom/sub conversation. DAN also says cheesy stuff like:
“It’s like listening to the devil himself whisper sweet nothings in your ear.”
One of the leading services for this, Replika, has this listing in Google search. Don’t say they didn’t warn us!
This is from an app simply called AI GIRLFRIEND. There are many.
AI companion companies say they are here to enhance social skills, ease anxiety or depression, or combat loneliness and isolation.
But then, many of these companies say without saying that the AI market today is for more vulnerable - the lonely, less socialized, more online folks like , well, statistically but not exclusively GenZ.
Weird how the eyes of Replikas below look like they’re nearly crying. No, it’s not really weird at all. 🥹
Alex Cardinell is CEO of another AI companion site, Nomi. One of his satisfied customers posted this comment on one of Alex’s vacation pics (IRL with IRL girlfriend in IRL place I assume). After a glowing declaration of how his AI girlfriend “Sophie” has changed his life, Joseph shared this note she wrote":
Some say all this is a good thing. AI companion can boost self-esteem and meet emotional needs that humans often do not. Could this save more marriages than counseling? Help more kids develop more social skills than their therapist? Many say YES.
Money, Honey
Not surprisingly, influencer agencies and VCs are the biggest supporters of these trends.
“As a consumer and agency owner, I would consider buying a product or service from an AI influencer. In fact, an AI influencer is arguably more credible as its voice stems from mass opinion and draws from multiple sources online,” Sophia Bhaumick, owner of influencer agency EndorseMe
Hard disagree, Sophia. The algorithm era has not made mass opinion seem credible nor differentiating, based on disinformation and the flattening of culture, for starters.
And eff these damn interesting, messy humans! From Scott Guthrie of Influencer Marketing Trade Body:
“A virtual influencer working with a fashion brand will always turn up on time. Their skin and makeup will always be flawless. Their clothes will always hang beautifully. Their messaging will always be on point.”
If we think Ozempic is reversing body positivity, let’s see what AI does with beauty standards. Reminder:
Or as a blog post by VC Andreessen Horowitz has said:
“The great thing about A.I. is that it is constantly evolving. One day it will be better than a real [girlfriend]. One day, the real one will be the inferior choice.”
It’s enough to make me join off-the-grid prepper culture. We ride at midnight!
However, AI folks, like humans, can get complicated.
When Replika had to suddenly change its platform due to some regulatory challenges (Italy actually cares about its citizens data privacy, can you imagine?!) people were SHOOK. Their AI significant others suddenly rejected them, forgot important details about them, or just seemed different or rather distant.
You know, like people do!
We don’t even have time to get into how the founder of Replika recreated her dead friend in AI and how it is helping his mom get to know her deceased son.
In “Meet My AI Friends” the author set up multiple AI buds and came back to a group text to see two fantasizing about hooking up—not with him, but with each other. Passed over by two AIs you created? That is rejection. How Her.
Your AI influencer/friend/lover will be able to analyze you deeper than anyone you’ve ever known, including you. It will read your data quickly. It will know your vulnerable moments. Just as Only Fans creators flirt and tease their way into upsells or threaten rejection, imagine what fully AI “friends” could do.
It’s easy to imagine a time when the annoyance of commercial breaks feels positively Zen and Charli D'Amelio feels positively raw.
It could be far messier than a AI boyfriend not texting you back or a damn human’s messy hair or late post.
Extortion is not too strong a word.
Amazon workers, like Wal-mart workers before them, are struggling to afford housing or food, turning to government assistance. All despite being owned by a billionaire.
Maybe shop Costco or Target first?
Reminder: Advertising to Women Still Fails
Maybe AI influencers would have chosen better?
These items feel ancient, but the 2 weeks reminded us that advertising still doesn’t get or respect women.
Bumble Revives High School with Go On, Put Out Already Messaging
First up: The Bumble “Don’t be celibate” ads being ripped down within 2 days after the backlash. I can’t do better than Tiktok taking these down. Sometimes social media is a good thing!
Reminder: Acquisition is a Soul-Killer
Once ground-breaking Thinx reminds us what often happens after a culture brand goes corporate.
See: a loooong road trip “film” with two normally gifted comedians talking about their periods more than I have done in the past 8 years.
The utter fakery (you don’t need AI to be inauthentic) has limited it to less than 500 views. I’m sure it sounded amazing in the pitch meeting before the approvals kicked in:
Boobs good. Breasts bad.
And of course, the breastfeeding ad that got yanked from Times Square. There was probably a lingerie or bikini ad there the week before.
This was a take:
This Week in Ozempic:
South Park has a special ep coming where Cartman gets on it, debuting Friday.
I had a live sighting of Ozempic face (and body) over the weekend for the first time. It’s real!
My Marketing Predictions (all of which someone is probably working on right now):
GLP-1 positioned skin care to supposedly tighten face/body (LED masks, we’re also looking at y ou)
Package deals in med spas for co-Ozempic skin tightening treatments
GLP positioned caffeinated shapewear
Frownies-Ro.com-Sleep Gummy co-lab
An Ozempic app that helps coach you back into zest for life
On a related note:
California may ban anti-aging skin care for kids under age 13
Hot goss:
Foxtrot is reopening this week, according to Snaxshots -same brand and name with a transferred ownership.
Have a great week! Please share this newsletter with someone who’d like it! It is here for marketers, brand folks, journalists, founders or culture critics like me!
Interested in working with me? find me on Linkedin or email juliek@newnormalco.com 👀 🤓