AI has been a trending topic the past couple of months across various media outlets. One often wonders how AI will impact many facets of society, such as relationships. AI can affect how we as humans relate to each other and ourselves.
There are plans for a new film that will illustrate the life story of legendary French singer, Edith Piaf (5;6). Warner Music Group and the Piaf estate have formed a partnership to create the biopic (6;7). AI will be used to recreate Piaf’s voice to narrate the film (5;6). It will be interesting to see how the film is received by fans of Piaf and people who have yet to know of the notable French singer. Executors of the Piaf estate have enjoyed hearing Piaf’s voice again during the production of the film (6). A personal relation of Piaf, Le Blanc mentions in an NPR interview that he will always see the ‘machine’ behind the reconstructed voice of Piaf (5). Hearing the viewpoint of Le Blanc evokes the question, “Will AI generated content be perceived differently when it is a personal relation versus a celebrity?” Which then leads to another question, “Will people prefer an original persona for an AI altogether?”.
Currently, there are some companies that are creating AI influencers. Many of these AI influencers are given personas that connect to the public. A company called 1337, is reaching out to adolescents for input when creating AI influencers (4). There is a large AI influencer market throughout Asia, particularly China (1). Regardless of the continent, it seems like some AI influencers have been highly successful, like Lu do Magalu from Brazil, where she has 30+ million followers (1;2). Lu do Magalu seems to have been an AI influencer since 2009 (2).Simultaneously, there have been some that would distrust a brand if the brand used AI influencers (3). Hearing about AI influencers makes one wonder what will happen to human influencers. Also, the notion of AI influencers provokes the question, “Will the public prefer AI
influencers?” Which then guides the question, “Will there be a need for humans in marketing in the future?”.
It will be intriguing to see how AI affects relationships in the future. AI has the capability to impact human relationships in a multitude of ways.
References
(1)https://sg.news.yahoo.com/are-singaporeans-being-seduced-by-ai-influencers-052021663.html#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20most%20popular,IG%20followers)%2C%20in%202022.
(2)https://www.virtualhumans.org/human/lu-do-magalu
(3)https://www.marketing-interactive.com/study-gen-z-ai-influencers
(4)https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/ai-influencers-explode-social-media-some-controlled-by-teens/story%3fid=108346584
(5)https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218386083/a-new-biopic-of-la-vie-en-rose-singer-edith-piaf-will-use-ai-to-recreate-her-voi
(6)https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/14/edith-piaf-voice-recreated-using-ai-so-she-can-narrate-own-biopic
(7)https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/edith-piaf-ai-biopic-warner-music-1235790327/
Northwest Alliance for Media Literacy 