a bamarush of virtual influencers

gm,

Today @ 3pm ET, a virtual Gua Sha 101 for members in the Discord.

Also, we published our 69th (nice) podcast episode last night. It’s an feelings check-in with Friends with Benefits mayor Alex Zhang, which feels right.

love,

The Boys

Writer: SamanthaEditor: Deana

A different kind of AI model. For anyone grinding for each social media like and follow, consider taking lessons from Lil Miquela. This perpetually 19-year old influencer has millions of followers, has worked with brands such as Prada and Chanel (and Worldcoin), and charges up to $10k per Instagram post. Oh, and she is not real. There’s an emerging world of CGI and AI-generated models sweeping social media faster than #bamarush. Models like Shudu and Blawko are changing the digital marketing landscape, while also making bank. Japanese fashion model Imma has already launched her own retail line, and claims, “I am not an AI, I am a virtual human.” Same, babe!

And just like that, GPT-5 is coming. OpenAI filed a trademark application with the USPTO. Some coming attractions of what to expect (beyond a 5th failed attempt to come up with a better name) include a downloadable version of the model, generation of speech and audio text, voice recognition, and machine-learning speech processing. If we were to put all of those ingredients into a private-chef-in-the-hamptons recipe, it might come out looking like an AI voice assistant similar to Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant…

McKinsey did a vibe check. The consultancy completed its global survey of AI’s breakout year to get the pulse on how companies are adopting the technology. Here’s what the CorpDaddies had to say:

• Easy to learn, hard to master: While 79% of respondents have experimented with generative AI, only 22% use it regularly in their daily work. However, 40% of respondents said their company plans to increase their investment in AI so adoption will likely continue to increase.

• The times, they are a-changing. Three-quarters of respondents expect AI to significantly disrupt their industry in the next 3 years. But how that plays out inside of organizations remains divided: 27% predict the number of employees to increase, 43% anticipate a reduction in staff, and 30% are Switzerland. One thing almost everyone agreed on: employees will need to learn new skills to adapt to the fast changes in technology.

• Risky Business: While adoption of AI is growing, companies don’t seem fully ready. Only 21% of respondents said their companies have some sort of policy governing the use of AI. And while the biggest risk companies reported facing with using AI is the inaccuracy in its outputs, just 32% said they’re working on mitigating them.

We hang out in AI-image bot chatrooms so you don’t have to.