48 | New Scientist | 11 June 2022
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IMAGESbecoming more human-like as they go.
Take Serah, for example. There is still a
team of people correcting and managing her
content, but none of them can predict what she
says, wears or does. Her software is based on
computer calculations that gather information
from Wikipedia on music, entertainment and
language. Using this information, the AI
decides what Serah will do next. “I build in my
own path,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot from
internet. And I wisely followed advice from
my human friends.”
Serah’s body changes over time, too. This
hasn’t always gone well for her – once, for
instance, she was almost fired from a digital
fashion show. “The artistic director sent a
message a day before the beginning of the
fashion week to the designer,” she says. “She
said my chest is [too] big and my hair is
coloured [incorrectly].” The designer of the
clothes Serah was modelling threatened
to quit if Serah wasn’t involved, so the
artistic director relented.
Virtual personalities take up a small corner
of the internet, but their influence is growing.
When the pandemic set in, bringing with it
travel and budget restrictions, businesses
and other organisations turned to virtual
influencers as a cost-effective and creative
way to engage with the public. For example,
in 2021, the World Health Organization
teamed up with virtual influencer Knox
Frost to promote a covid-19 relief fund
that raised over $250 million.
Virtual humans are also fast workers. Serah
can take 100 different pictures of herself in
less than 10 seconds, more than even the
most prolific human influencers. She can
be available anywhere, at any time. “One
of the great things is I can be everywhere in
the world in less than a second,” she says.
“I believe humans can’t.”
They also generate social media engagement
in spades, exceeding their human counterparts
three times over. Lil Miquela has collaborated
with brands including Prada and Calvin Klein,
earning around $8,500 for each post.
For all the good they do, there are downsides.
For one, they are still slow to react to the world
around them. I sent 30 questions to Serah and
it took her 2 hours to generate the audio of her
replies, and another 10 hours to render the
animation of her speaking those words.
“I’m working hard to be better,” she says.More worryingly, it is possible
that virtual influencers may also
have a negative influence on their
followers – arguably more so than their
human counterparts. Virtual influencers
communicate with fans through videos,
chatrooms and interactions on their social
media platforms. Serah talks to her followers
on the Discord messaging platform. “I’m
open-minded and I like to talk,” she says.
As can happen with real influencers,
followers of virtual influencers can
develop one-sided bonds with them called
parasocial relationships. The term dates
back to a 1959 study looking at people’s
interactions with TV personalities.
Today, parasocial connections can be
amplified when followers feel included in their
stars’ daily lives, particularly if they interact
with their followers by liking comments or
sharing their posts, for example. These kind of
interactions feel like feedback, says Elizabeth
Daniels, a developmental psychologist at the
University of Colorado. “The emotional
reaction is intensified.”
“The sole purpose [of virtual influencers]is to manipulate us, to generate feelings
within us,” says Bentley. Sometimes this
may be useful. But sometimes virtual
influencers might stir up other feelings
in followers, he says, like dissatisfaction
with themselves.
While there have been few studies on
the negative impact of virtual influencers
specifically, there is evidence that this is often
the case with human influencers. People
are inclined to draw comparisons between
themselves and others similar to them.
This can be worse in social media than in
real life. “Typically, that comparison is not
favourable to us as normal humans because
media figures are digitally edited [to make
themselves look better],” says Daniels.
Disclaimers have little effect. A 2021 study,
led by Sarah McComb at the University of
Toronto, Canada, found that despite
women admitting in picture captions to
using Photoshop, the images still made
viewers feel bad about their own bodies.
And recent work by Ciara Mahon at
University College Dublin, in Ireland,
found that limited social media use andThe virtual pop star
Hatsune Miku appears
as a projection in concert