Bye Bye, Mr. Beast: Why AI Will Kill the Internet Star
We've all been saying it for years, right? That influencers are basically just walking, talking billboards who don't do much besides shill the next miracle tea or some overpriced gadget. And while that's mostly true, we never really looked at the root of the problem. Now, that whole system is starting to "correct" itself in the most capitalist way you could imagine.
A Bubble Built on Bored Ice Bears
This influencer and advertising bubble is one of the biggest and most resistant I've seen. The first sign that should have been a warning was when people’s primary goal became "being a social media influencer."
It used to be a byproduct of doing something significant; now, people do anything just as long as it yields them a following.
Since that social-media aspect isn't restricted to some jobs, you are competing with everyone, even with non-human entities. You are a zoo? You need a social-media presence. Heck, even an ice bear being born in a zoo is worthy of its own social media presence.
Ice bears in captivity are very hard to breed, but since his parents have been bored as fuck, that’s all they did.
If you're interested in the money aspect of this bubble, I’ve touched on it before in “From Ape to Algorithm”.
The Inevitable, Brand-Safe Replacement
The whole shift is so logical, it's almost boring. You could see it coming from a mile away. For every celebrity shilling some shit-coin, for every scandal a brand has to navigate, the appeal of a 100% brand-safe, algorithmically perfect AI personality gets a little stronger.
Maybe you aren’t aware, but there is a tumor in our society called capitalism. The reason it’s like that is right there in the word: CAPITAL. More money equals better. As simple as that.
And if the influencer I’m hiring is 100% brand-safe, you can bet your ass that’s what a company wants. No David Dobrik smashing his friends into excavators. No Mr. Beast shamelessly scamming his fans. In the end, what is an actor but a tool for a director's vision? AI is simply a better, more predictable tool.
Of course, real humans won't vanish from entertainment, but imagine an AI Jared Leto who can actually convey convincing emotion. The relation between actor and director will change, and the gap will close somewhat. In fact, there will be a huge shift in many professions, in some, it's already happened. And the big irony with all of that? The professions that feared AI the most at first, the writers and other creatives, will likely come out as winners.
Welcome to the Sterile Future
This isn't just about swapping out a few bad apples. It’s about fundamentally changing who, or what, we see on our screens. A influencer becomes Ainfluencer.
We're heading towards a future where our entertainers might not have a pulse, but they'll be perfectly tailored, scandal-proof by design, and completely owned by their corporate overlords.
So, where does that leave us? Is this sanitized future really progress? Or is it just another symptom of a system that’s fundamentally sick, one that would rather trade messy human reality for sterile, calculated perfection?
