A MAN who manages the social media profile of a glamour model that doesn’t exist has said he is trying to “counter” the narrative that he is misleading men for money.
The man uses artificial intelligence to create the beauty persona. Some have questioned his motives behind the profile.
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The man, identified simply as Pierre in an interview with Futurism, manages the social media accounts for AI influencer Natalia Novak.
The self-described 21-year-old virtual influencer has been posting dozens of photos on Instagram since mid-April, showing off a fit body and sexy clothes.
The posts receive thousands of likes and hundreds of comments from followers gushing over her artificially generated looks.
Pierre appeared to indicate that he calls himself Natalia’s manager to help create the illusion of an influencer posting.
“The reason for this is of course that I’m playing a character and people don’t want to know so directly who’s behind it, even if they could piece it together if they want to,” he told Futurism.
In recent months, AI programs – particularly ones that can create images based on text prompts – have come under criticism for misleading audiences.
To combat that, Pierre has remained heavily transparent about the project.
On Natalia’s profile, she is described as a “Virtual AI Influencer.”
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In several posts, her account refers to artificial intelligence and technology as a tool and “the future of beauty.”
“Most of us have some form of disclosure, like saying we’re ‘virtual’ or outright AI, because as much as it is fun to play on the novelty and confusion around AI, deception isn’t the point of it nearly as often as people might think,” Pierre said.
He went on to explain that many people behind the scenes of virtual influencers do it because of “personal expression or artisic value behind it.”
“I want to counter the easy, misleading narrative that some try to spread, that this whole thing is a grift to trick men out of their money,” Pierre said.
Not only that, the manager insisted it can be an outlet for those looking to roleplay and take on a different persona.
“I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘kink’ (not as far as anything that’s been shared with me) but there seem to be people who want to identify as women through their persona that might not be,” he said.
“There are people who get into relationships with someone else’s persona using their own, which I know because they’re public about it. I’ve seen it a couple times.”
