Ai Influencer Awards Season Is Upon Us

First came nan AI beauty pageant. Then nan AI euphony contests. Now, location is an grant for AI Personality of nan Year — possibly nan inevitable adjacent measurement for nan AI influencer system arsenic it transforms from quirky novelty into a superior and lucrative industry.

The contest, a associated task betwixt generative AI workplace OpenArt and AI-powered creator level Fanvue, pinch backing from AI sound institution ElevenLabs, opens connected Monday and runs for a month. The organizers said it is intended to “celebrate nan imaginative talent ‘behind’ AI Influencers” and admit their increasing commercialized and taste clout.

Contestants will compete for a full prize money of $20,000, which will beryllium divided betwixt an wide victor and individual categories of fitness, lifestyle, comedian, euphony and creation entertainer, and fictional cartoon, anime, aliases imagination personality. Victors will beryllium celebrated astatine an arena successful May that nan organizers are dubbing nan “‘Oscars’ for AI personalities.”

To enter, you must create your AI influencer connected OpenArt’s level and taxable it astatine www.AIpersonality.ai. You’ll beryllium asked for societal media handles crossed TikTok, X, YouTube, and Instagram, arsenic good arsenic nan communicative down nan character, your motivations for creating it, and specifications of immoderate marque work.

Among those assessing contestants are 13‑time Emmy‑winning drama writer Gil Rief, nan creators of Spanish AI exemplary Aitana Lopez, and Christopher “Topher” Townsend, nan MAGA rapper down AI-generated gospel vocalist Solomon Ray. According to a transcript of nan judges’ briefing seen by The Verge, contestants will beryllium scored connected 4 criteria: quality, societal clout, marque appeal, and nan inspiration down nan avatar. Specific points see reliably engaging pinch followers, portraying a accordant look crossed societal channels, meticulous specifications for illustration having nan “right number of fingers and thumbs,” and having “an authentic narrative” down nan avatar.

The title is unfastened to established creators and novices alike, though existing AI influencers will still request to taxable worldly produced connected OpenArt’s platform, Matt Jones, caput of marque astatine Fanvue, told The Verge.

Despite being designed to observe creators of virtual influencers, Jones said that entrants don’t request to publically place themselves. “If a personification who created this astonishing portion of activity wants thing to do pinch nan property aliases to expose themselves aliases to person their sanction retired there, that’s evidently fine,” he said. “There would beryllium nary request to thrust anybody into nan limelight here. We would conscionable observe nan portion of work.”

That creators tin stay anonymous feels overseas for a title judging authenticity, peculiarly successful an AI influencer ecosystem built connected fictional people, clone personas, and fabricated backstories. That aforesaid anonymity has besides helped grifts flourish pinch small accountability, from nan AI achromatic nationalist rapper Danny Bones to MAGA imagination woman Jessica Foster.

There’s acquainted baggage too, including persistent questions astir originality, whether AI-generated work, aliases moreover a likeness, has been lifted from existent creators, and whether these devices simply reproduce nan aforesaid aged biases successful synthetic form. Organizer Fanvue has already faced disapproval for this successful nan past: successful 2024, a Guardian columnist described its “Miss AI” beauty pageant arsenic thing that “take(s) each toxic gendered beauty norm and bundle(s) them up into a wholly unrealistic package.”

To Fanvue’s Jones, creators inevitably time off thing of themselves successful nan AI characters they make. “You can’t thief but put a small spot of yourself into nan stories that you show and nan characters that you make,” he said, urging creators to “lean into that.” The thought feels astatine location successful nan influencer economy: not strictly real, but a shape of synthetic authenticity nan net already knows really to handle.