Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg, and Paris Hilton are among the first wave of Meta’s AI-generated influencers, with rumours of $5 million deals for the rights to their faces
“Hey guys, it’s Billie,” says Kendall Jenner, smiling for the camera. “I just want to introduce myself. I am here to chat whenever you want.” The influencer is, of course, instantly recognisable despite her pseudonym. The flawless, dewy skin and otherworldly facial structure. The Valley Girl upspeak. “I hope to talk to you soon,” she signs off, blowing us a kiss.
Something is obviously amiss. If this is really Kendall, then why is she posing as “Billie, your local ride or die” in an Instagram reel? Why isn’t she posting from her own, 294-million-follower account? Why – and this is the most puzzling question – is she deigning to distribute sisterly advice to the unwashed masses, and how on Earth is she going to find the time to respond to everyone’s DMs? (As of writing, @yoursisbilly has 85,000 followers, with 6,000 comments on her introductory post.)
The year is 2023 – by now, it’s safe to assume you already know the answer to these questions. In fact, since AI-generated pictures and videos entered the mainstream last year, you’ve probably trained yourself to question any mildly dubious image that crosses your social media feeds, whether it turns out to be real, a deepfake, or a photo conjured with carefully worded text prompts from the depths of a deep learning model like DALL-E 3. In the case of Billie, AKA Kendall Jenner’s clone, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, she’s based on (and backed by) Kendall herself, but she’s actually a product of Meta’s AI department, a virtual chatbot with its own “unique personality, mannerisms and backstory”.
The Kendall clone isn’t alone, either. Bots wearing the face of Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Dazed cover star Naomi Osaka, and more now have their own Instagram accounts for real users to chat with via DM. They even post their own photos labelled #ImaginedWithAI, although “imagined” is quite a strong term for their bland lifestyle snapshots and inane memes.
What’s the point? Why have celebrities allowed Mark Zuckerberg to appropriate their faces in this way? (Hint: the answer contains six zeroes.) Are we officially living in an episode of Black Mirror? All good questions. Below, we try our best to get to the bottom of it all.
WHERE DID META’S AI CHATBOTS COME FROM?
Meta announced the launch of its new “AI assistants” last month, during its annual product showcase, Connect. The concept isn’t new, of course, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT leading the way in human-like conversations until now, alongside smaller competitors like Snapchat. The difference is, Meta is an $800 billion social media behemoth, with the power to integrate its chatbots directly into platforms like Instagram and Facebook. (Right now, they’re only being rolled out to US users.)
These chatbots are powered by the company’s own large language model, Llama 2, with their faces and conversational styles essentially functioning like a mask, hiding the overwhelming complexity under the surface. Think: the Shoggoth with Smiley Face meme, but instead of a yellow emoji the Lovecraftian demon is dressed up as Kendall Jenner or Mr Beast.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
Displaying his endless capacity for acts of artistic imagination once again, Zuckerberg has suggested that AI chatbots can help users... decide what to have for lunch, or find instructions to make fancy dress costumes. Meta’s celeb-themed chatbots, though, offer more directed interactions, billed as “different AIs for different things”.
Take Snoop Dogg’s clone, for example. He’s a “dungeon master” who can take users on various DnD-themed adventures, from dragon-slaying quests to cyberpunk chase scenes. Paris Hilton’s is, for some reason, a “crime-solving detective”. If you want a more realistic conversation, then there’s Kendall (sorry, Billie) the “big sister” sim, or Mr Beast (AKA Zach), a “brotherly jokester”. Presumably, these both allow users to vent while enjoying a vague sense of interacting with a sibling. Maybe they don’t have an IRL brother of their own. Maybe they do, but he has no time for them – he’s locked in his bedroom chatting up an AI sexbot.
WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE FAMOUS PEOPLE?
There’s an uncanny aspect to seeing famous faces pop up on social media under different names, living their own virtual “lives”, but it makes sense. Kendall Jenner is among the most followed humans on Instagram, Mr Beast has the most YouTube subscribers, and Charli D’Amelio (whose Insta clone is Coco, “a girl just vibin!”) is the second most-followed TikToker. Basically, they’re handpicked to help draw younger users onto Facebook and Instagram, and keep them there, where they can keep making money for Meta.
At Connect, Zuckerberg gave his own explanation for the celebrity personas. “This is about entertainment and about helping you do things to connect with the people around you,” he said. “We thought that this should feel fun, and it should feel familiar.”
How will absorbing yourself in DMs with an AI-powered clone help connect with the real people around you? It’s unclear!
HOW DID META CONVINCE CELEBRITIES TO GIVE UP THEIR FACE?
When it comes to their involvement in the Meta project, some celebrities are easier to explain than others. Paris, for example, is a self-professed “huge tech geek”, as evidenced by her involvement in the very embarrassing business of shilling Bored Ape NFTs – why wouldn’t she want to be at the forefront of this new technology? Others are a bit more difficult to comprehend... until you hear how much the tech giant was paying.
According to The Information, Meta paid one top creator (who goes unnamed) as much as $5 million over two years, for as little as six hours work. Of course, this also means sacrificing the rights to your face and voice, but we’re probably all going to lose those soon anyway, so who can blame someone for taking some Meta money while they’re at it?
HOW WILL IT AFFECT OUR SOCIAL LIVES?
As much as Zuck trumpets the chatbots’ ability to help you “connect with the people around you”, chatting with virtual celebrities on Instagram probably isn’t going to work wonders on your social life, for a couple of reasons. One: that’s time you could spend having conversations in the real world, with social media already cutting into our attention enough as it is. Two: who wants to be friends with someone who keeps breaking off to share gossip with a fake Mr Beast anyway? Terrible vibes.
On a more serious note, we’ve already seen how fans can form negative parasocial relationships with celebrities and influencers online. Chatbots like Meta’s just feel like the logical next step on a road to complete social collapse. Admittedly, it probably is possible to have fun with detective Paris Hilton, or get personalised tips on cutting cucumbers from Kendall, without being sucked into an attention black hole, but Meta won’t make it easy. After all, capturing your attention is exactly what social media companies want – their business model basically depends on it.
“Where next, bold adventurer?” says dungeon master Snoop Dogg, and then you look up to find three hours have passed, Meanwhile, Zuck is trying to figure out how to convert your roleplaying decisions into cold, hard ad revenue.
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