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Why We Love AI Influencer Bots
AI influencers, chatbots, virtual humans. They’re hugely popular? Why this is goes back thousands of years.
The people gathered in the outer temple room. The room flickering from the light of burning tapers in wall sconces. The air thick with incense. Tonight the oracle would speak and her prophecies would carry across the land. The Pythia of Delphi was lit, moving. Her arms twitched and her mouth opened, her yes glowed.
Today, millions of people around the world await the words of Lil Miquela or sway to her songs on Youtube, sharing her words and content, building community around her. She is worth an estimated $125 Million. She is an AI influencer, a bot, a virtual human and she is not real. But then, neither was the Pythia of Delphi thousands of years ago.
Some of the major oracles actually did move and were guided by priests and temple workers from behind the scenes ropes and gears. They would use ventriloquism to project the voice of the oracle. Today, that is all done by machines and LLMs act as the voice.
While AI influencer bots may seem like something new, they’re part of ancient human history going back many thousands of years. They’re in effect, the totems of the digital age. Long have humans practiced some form of conscious devotion…
