11 ms·
Instagram's 'virtual' celebrities
- tjwds 9y agoThe SF lover in me loves this. The person who cares about others in me is glad that this might change the way we idolize celebrity at the cost of real people. Man, the future is cool.
- Applejinx 9y agoIf this works, humans can't possibly compete. Not on the scale that virtual people can. This is simply another step towards a kind of singularity. I suspect the most competitive virtual supermodel would be that created by a person (say, some schlub) who desperately needed to be such a supermodel and could handle themselves in that situation: projecting their own desired identity through the mask, to animate it. Or, created by an AI which itself is a needy schlub that craves validation and can handle itself as a supermodel. There's no reason this hunger should be exclusive to humans only. And an AI would have greater bandwidth for learning what the public wanted from 'it as a supermodel'.
- reaperducer 9y agoIt doesn't even have to be human. Take a popular Pixar character, add an AI and a bunch of stock photo backgrounds, and you'll hook the under-12's in a minute.
- firefoxd 9y agoThere is Ami Yamato[1]. A 3d character youtuber. I'm actually not sure how she keeps being consistent. I imagine it is a lot of work to make these videos. [1]: https://m.youtube.com/user/yamatoami https://m.youtube.com/user/yamatoami
- Lich 9y agoReminds me of Eliza Cassan in Deux Ex: Human Revolution. A virtual 24/7 news anchor.
- dfxm12 9y ago[Virtual model] Miquela: I think most of the celebrities in popular culture are virtual! I can't disagree. When I was a kid, I wanted to eat Butterfingers because of Bart Simpson and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made me want Pizza Hut. Along the same lines, "physical" celebrities have teams of PR agents telling their clients how to act and shaping the public's perception of them. This isn't really a new idea, just a new vector, right?
- polar8 9y agoHow is this different from cartoon characters?
- whywhywhywhy 9y agoIt's not, but the software and hardware stack means a single human in a bedroom can create this instead of a small room of illustrators and keyframe artists in America and a large room of inbetweeners in Korea. If neural network voice generation tech gets democratised in the next few years too then you could even be pushing out video content too as an entirely different personality than your actual self.
- dandare 9y agoThis brings the "unrealistic body image" discussion to a whole new level. it could have a positive impact - in a way escalating the realization that media/fashion models are not "real" either.
- matte_black 9y agoMedia/fashion models are “real” similar to how exotic supercars are “real”.
- colechristensen 9y agoFashion models aren't real because the images of them are photoshopped. If you looked at the humans that inspired the images you wouldn't see the same thing. Exotic cars are... expensive? A lot of the appeal of owning one is the perception of (and the very real) cost, but they are still what they seem to be.
- l9k 9y agoReally hot and beautiful models exist. They are just rare. They are the 1%. But out of 500M DAU, that means they are 5 millions, and they are the most popular because of their beauty. The unrealistic expectation comes from the fact that people get used to seeing the top 1% because of social media.
- jronsomers 9y agoI'm not sure how I feel about this. This could be a good thing by saving celebrities the need to appear perfect everywhere. However, I feel like this could be a whole new ball game in terms of setting unrealistic expectations (not that they aren't doing that anyway with photoshop). But if it is transparent that these IG models are virtual and not real, maybe that will help kids understand that real humans can't look as perfect as a virtual model and that helps them create realistic expectations? edit: I suppose they could also use virtual models and fatten them up / give them more acne to make them more 'realistic'
- mkirklions 9y agoI'm going with unrealistic expectations. Instagram celebs are either hot girls, or guys with lots of money to pay for promoted content. They dont take their own photos, they use professional photographers. Anyone without the professional style or not willing to play facebook's algorithm game loses out. The internet is getting very specialized and content quality is skyrocketing.
- rainbowmverse 9y ago>> Instagram celebs are either hot girls, or guys with lots of money to pay for promoted content. Guys are hot, too. Not all of them need to pay for ads, and not all the women got there without it.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoWhy bother when you could have normal people too? I mean I guess the main thing why you'd want a virtual model is to give them an unnatural appearance, like the Miquela character mentioned in the article, or err, the one with the huge eyes in a recent or upcoming movie.
- mooreds 9y agoBecause the virtual models are cheaper and will be wholly owned and operated by the company that owns them?
- chrisvalleybay 9y agoThis is going to change the world in a substantial way. Imagine when these characters become so lifelike that they are near indistinguishable from reality. Imagine when someone gives them a voice and personality, and you can speak with them. Imagine then that they star in their own movies, and some of the personality traits you've helped shaped or bared witness to emerge in those movies. The connection you will feel. Today celebrities are inherently limited by their own bandwidth. These people will have near unlimited bandwidth. Everyone can talk with them. I'm thinking of the movie Her. This is really interesting! Edit: This made me think; The Sims in year 2050, might be immoral; almost Truman Show-esque.
- Cactus2018 9y agoMade me think of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_(2002_film)
- ambicapter 9y agoWow can't believe this didn't make waves, this is exactly up my alley.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoYou're saying it like it hasn't already happened. Most models already are carefully crafted images, with a lot of post-processing happening so what you end up seeing is more of an art piece inspired by the model than the person behind it. Un-lifelike famous characters are already very much a thing, especially in e.g. japan where there's characters appearing everywhere.
- matte_black 9y agoYou misunderstand the point of models. A model's photoshoot is rarely about the model, or the "person behind it". It is an art piece. It is not meant to be a candid photo like what you throw up on your social media. Often models are just for the purpose of branding, to convey a lifestyle or value, or to get likes.
- masklinn 9y agoThe lack of mention of Vocaloids strikes me as interesting/odd: they're literally virtual pop stars/idols. And while they're not intended to look or pass as humans they "give" hours-long packed concerts: https://youtu.be/HI0mv7P_sRk https://youtu.be/HI0mv7P_sRk
- steinuil 9y agoIt also fails to mention virtual youtubers, who are "virtual" youtube personalities with a 3D model as body and whose videos take place entirely inside 3D environments. Obviously they're being played by real actors with motion control equipment, but there's a lot of work that goes into making them feel believable as virtual characters, with facial expressions and lots of other animations that are probably added after recording. They've become very popular in Japan over the last year. The most famous one is called Kizuna Ai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NasyGUeNMTs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NasyGUeNMTs
- tyu100 9y agoMy thoughts as well, but still an interesting article.
- johnchristopher 9y ago> And while they're not intended to look or pass as humans they "give" hours-long packed concerts: https://youtu.be/HI0mv7P_sRk https://youtu.be/HI0mv7P_sRk That's because they learned their lessons from 20 years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONIKb1EwX6U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONIKb1EwX6U (kyoko date, one of the very first realistic virtual idol, 1997) (god, when did I become old enough to see patterns through generations :|). edit: I find the new crop of virtual idols a bit creepy (anime charadesign, childish themes). Might be a generation thing.
- blanche_ 9y agoThere was a black mirror episode about something very similar. "The Waldo Moment"
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoThat's an obvious cartoon character though, these are models trying to look like real people - and having fooled people already.
- freehunter 9y agoTo be fair, I believe people are only fooled because we already do so much CGI to real human celebrities that they're already basically indistinguishable from a well-done virtual creation. "Normal" humans look far different from celebrities and these CGI creations, but celebrities and these CGI creations look similar because celebrities are already mostly CGI.
- blanche_ 9y agoI don't think that makes a lot of difference. It is more about identity/persona owned by companies.
- pjc50 9y agoReminds me very strongly of "Idoru" (1996) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru > “If you think about social media, Instagram isn’t you. It’s just a digital version of you – one that shows photographs, sometimes videos, and comments on specific things,” "Ceci n'est pas un pipe.": the image is not the thing, and there may be images without referents.
- analogmemory 9y agoThank you, I was trying to remember which sci-fi book touched on the same idea.
- janandonly 9y agoThis is directly form the movie "S1m0ne". What an uninspired artist :(
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoExcept that the titular character in that one was actually a real actor, :p
- ponderatul 9y agoThe commoditization of beauty. Or the next thing that will become cheap, by these providers of beauty. Hopefully the market will be oversaturated with beauty, computer generated perfection and after some time swimming in this junk, we will once again appreciate real people, with all their problems, inconsistencies, imperfections. Until then let us all hail our gods of technological progress.
- edgarvaldes 9y agoBut then, we will have virtual beauty, with some human imperfections added here and there.
- Vaskivo 9y agoAnd then we will have artificial problems, inconsistencies and imperfections. There will always be capitalization and fabrication on what is popular and perceived to be "good". "Reality" TV is a thing :)
- kbenson 9y agoI mean sure, that's what we saw with retouched playboy centerfolds a couple decades back, right? /s
- gabept 9y agoIt's commoditization of human beauty. It's not commoditization of beauty.
- creep 9y agoI think this is a good thing. We all know models are heavily photoshopped and overlaid with CGI. But we also cannot separate that from the real person, even though the image isn't real. If this catches on in fashion I feel a weight can be lifted from our shoulders. We will know most of the images are completely computer-generated.
- fenwick67 9y agoI mean, Tony the Tiger has tens of thousands of followers too...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mariusmg 9y agoThis is fucking orweillian
- spurcell93 9y agoWhat about this is specifically Orwellian?
- freehunter 9y agoPeople have no idea what Orwellian actually means. When someone says "1984" I automatically assume they mean "Brave New World", and that they've never read either of them.
- musage 9y agoI think the devaluation of the actually existing people and the putting on a pedestal of images (not just in the literal sense) are two sides of the same coin really. People turn themselves into machines and worship machines. Nobody wins, because nobody remains. The End. > The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound. [..] > She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself. Perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about. -- George Orwell, "Nineteen-Eightyfour"
- crispyporkbites 9y agoGeorge Orwell was a fictional person
- clort 9y agoThis is a corporate ownership of personality. Shudu is ageless, ever available, won't do anything against the corporate image and can be bought and sold. Ok, she is a generated personality but this will happen with real people too. Tom Cruise is too old to appear in action films? Well, his image won't be.. even after he is dead and gone his image will be owned by a corporation. He won't be too short to appear as Jack Reacher anymore either.. We might be lucky with some celebrities who are already dead, at least they will get left behind. Its difficult to know how this will affect new talent though, perhaps society will become sick of recorded images and turn to live events but I can see that the CGI power will increase such that these images can be generated live. We already had some of this with Tupac of course
- chrisvalleybay 9y agoOr maybe we'll just start watching live TV of simulated life interacting with each other. Sort of like the Truman Show. Just like Big Brother or Jersey shore, but this time people can pay real money for things to happen to the simulated people. They will have simulated emotional registers designed to mimic our own. Sometimes one might wonder if we're someone elses Truman Show. It's OK though, in that case climate change doesn't matter :-)
- lainga 9y agoAnd if you can influence the plot, The Sims?
- paganel 9y ago> They will have simulated emotional registers designed to mimic our own. There was also a good SF film similar to this called "Surrogates" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_35 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_35), which somehow flew under the radar when it premiered, back in 2009. It's a combination between what you're describing and Asimov's description of life on planet Solaria. From the wiki page of the latter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun > The book focuses on the unusual traditions, customs, and culture of Solarian society. The planet has a rigidly controlled population of 20,000, and robots outnumber humans twenty thousand to one. People are taught from birth to avoid personal contact, and live on huge estates, either alone or with their spouse only. Face-to-face interaction (referred to in the book as "seeing"), and especially impregnating a woman, when replacement of a decedent is necessary, was seen as unavoidable but dirty. Communication is completed instead through holography (referred to in the book as "viewing") , where in contrast to "seeing", they are free of modesty, and have no problem if an interlocutor sees the other's naked body. A two-way teleconference allowed the participants to hear and see each other, but in 3D - an idea almost unheard-of at the time of publication, when color television was a novelty.
- gkya 9y ago> For fashion brands, a high-tech mannequin offers intriguing possibilities. She, he, or it can be placed in any situation in any given outfit. Would not bet on that. If this stuff holds foot, these models will soon have rights and fanatics who will lament when these things wear or do things non characteristical of them. They'll have to have rigid, stereotypical personalities to which the follower communities will practically confine them.
- paulie_a 9y agoThis is just plain stupid.
- vernie 9y agoWhy?
- foobaw 9y agoReminds me of Hatsune Miku from Japan, a humanoid persona, with a huge following. Miku is not deceptive about its virtuality. But people still love it. Some people love anime characters - there's a huge culture behind that. The problem occurs when there's deception about its identity. There will be trust issues in the near future if things like this persist. Then again, would it even matter if some celebrity is a real person in the future?
- jbattle 9y agoI wouldn't be surprised if the window is already closing for this constructed personalities where you can't tell if they are real or not. People get relatively savvy to the nuances of new media fairly quickly (within a few years). Sure there will be notable exceptions but I bet some unspoken norms / rules / clues will develop and be roughly accurate guides as to which dimensions the people they see on their screens are real vs. artificial.
- return0 9y agoNot virtual though, they are CGIs but there is an artist behind giving it its soul. Its gonna be a lot more interesting when the entire agent is computerized.
- nicwolff 9y agoIf we're citing fictional predictions that this will fulfill, I think Howard Chaykin coined the term "synthespian" in his 1983 comic book American Flagg! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Flagg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Flagg!
- dwighttk 9y agoI might not have guessed Shudu was fake, but man, Miquela is so fake looking as to almost not even be entering the uncanny valley
- auganov 9y agoInstagram got 'hacked'. When a game gets hacked people stop playing. Rather than fundamentally alter reality or whatever, it's just going to accelerate migration towards high-frequency, ephemeral, video-first social.
- JasonFruit 9y ago'Social' is an adjective.
- ccozan 9y agoThis is totally Norman Spinrad's "Little Heroes" [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Heroes_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Heroes_(novel)
- errantmind 9y agoFor anyone interested in seeing how this could play out in the future, I recommend watching The Congress. It has a somewhat low IMDB rating, but I liked it as it addresses the corporatization of identity and the extent some people will go to live vicariously : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821641/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821641/
- twostorytower 9y agoMiquela is so blatantly CGI it's a little sad that some people are confused if she's real or not.