412
AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
AI is improving by leaps and bounds. I've fiddled with Stable Diffusion for over a year and I've seen it go from mostly random, highly deformed, blurry Polaroid quality images to high def, lifelike, in almost any pose imaginable images. And the same improvement goes for non-photo quality images too. Highly-skilled illustrators with degrees are mostly fucked. This whole "but I'm so much more efficient" argument doesn't hold water in our economy. Producing 3X more doesn't mean people consume 3X more, it means you're 3X overstaffed.
Now for streamers and influencers I'll admit some of them have cardboard personalities and are easily replaced. Someone like JSE (I don't watch much so sorry if my references are dated) is a little more animated than average so that's gonna be harder to replicate, but does it need to be replicated in order to steal views? Jack is one man and he can't stream 24x7 and many would prefer an "always on" streamer to someone with better content but available intermittently.
Hell, look at Amazon. It used to be filled with name brand products that you could rely upon because reputations were at stake. Now it's an endless sea of cloned and relabeled products that are between decent and total crap, but is that hurting Amazon's bottom line? Nope. The stuff is crap but it's cheap, readily available, and it arrives in 24 hours. Who needs quality???
TL;DR - AI doesn't need to be good, it needs to be good enough, and when it breaches that threshold you'll see quality content creators go into overdrive to keep up or pack it in because the effort is no longer worth the payout.
I mean yeah it is heartbreaking how artists are going to be FURTHER devalued in society 🙃