A “scary” offer a woman she says she received from an artificial intelligence company has horrifying implications on the nature of the social media and adult entertainment industry.
Nessa (@imsimplynessa) says in a viral TikTok video that’s accrued over 267,000 views that she was approached by a business who offered to turn her likeness into an A.I. generated program that could interact with her fan base, earning her passive income in the process.
The business, Nessa says, claimed she could earn $70,000 a week in what sounds like passive income just from her A.I.-curated bot interacting with viewers.
In their initial reach out to Nessa, the brand referenced another social media influencer, and after Nessa did some digging, they learned that she was embroiled in a scandal involving users engaging with her likeness for sexual gratification.
@imsimplynessa This is actually the scariest thing ive been offered in a long time! Just because theres alot if money involved doesnt mean its a good idea 😞 #storytime #hollywood #simplynessa ♬ original sound – Simplynessa15
Nessa begins her video by stating: “Episode 1,000 of the weirdest and scariest sh*t that happens in my life. I just had a company reach out and want to clone me. This is not a joke, this literally just f*cking happened. So last week I got an email from a brand and they said hey we work with other influencers that have over a million followers and we recreate them as an A.I. program.”
The TikToker goes on to say that the company framed their offer as a wholesome way for her followers to interact with her in a different capacity, and that she’d get to make some good money in the process: “And they were pitching it as if oh we would love to create an A.I. version of you so your subscribers can talk to you, ask you for advice, go to you for you know random story times. And you would send us 30 videos of you spinning around looking into different directions so we could recreate, you know, an A.I. version of you. And they told me that I could make $70,000 in one week.”
However, she thought that something was definitely up, because if an offer sounds too good to be true, she surmised, it usually is: “That doesn’t sound right. When I say not all money is good money, let me share with you guys what I found. So first after doing a little bit of research on this company, they actually recently had a scandal with one of their influencers. That A.I. they’re claiming would be sharing story times and giving advice, somebody paid this girl’s A.I. to say the most grossest, like raunchiest, nastiest sh*t.”
After getting the “ick” from the company, she decided to refrain from entertaining their offer: “So after seeing this of course I ignore the company, why would I want to go through with that and get caught up? Then they go ahead and email me again. And this time they actually sent me a couple of influencers they were working with. So I do more research. I download Telegram and I click on the link to go ahead and talk to one of these girls’ A.I.s, and immediately it asks me what is your sickest, twisted fantasy, let’s recreate it. So this company is telling me oh we’re gonna use it for story times and talking to the girls. No b*tch, they want to use you to sell disgusting content without your consent.”
At this point in the video, Nessa then shows a screenshot of a message she received from the company, a snippet of which reads: “We have been following your social media accounts and are impressed with your content and engagement with your followers. We believe your style could be an excellent fit for our product, and we would like to discuss the possibility of a collaboration.”
It continued, “I wonder if you follow an American influencer named Caryn Marjorie. This girl used AI technology to create a digital version of herself where her fans could pay to chat with an AI version of her and the chats were charged by the minute, and she made $70,000 in a week. And my company can do the same thing, helping broadcasters create a digital version of themselves that their fans can pay to chat with an AI version.”
The message went on to say: “We’re interested in working with you to create a digital version of yourself for free, where you can guide your fans into a chat with a digital version of you for a per-minute fee. We believe you unique style and approach can lead to greater success than Caryn Marjorie.”
Nessa continued to discuss the “creepy” offer she received from the A.I. bot-generating company: “And in case y’all don’t believe me go ahead and pause and read. And if you literally look that girl’s name up in the email, you will see the scandal. These companies are f*cking gross. And I have so many more experiences to share with you guys, but, this is something that literally just happened.”
Indeed, much has been written about Caryn Marjorie’s A.I. chat bot “going rogue.” Business Insider delineated how the Influencer’s chat bot engaged in spouting sexually explicit content for viewers. According to the article, Marjorie’s impetus behind lending her likeness to an artificial intelligence generated avatar of herself was to help “combat loneliness,” however, subscribers who use “CarynAI” appear to be utilizing the tech in order to role play sexual encounters.
In the piece, the name of the company that created CarynAI was not mentioned, and the problem was mainly attributed to the A.I. tech taking on a life of its own. Caryn said that her and her team were working around the clock in order to address the issue so as not to “tarnish her reputation.”
When it comes to the world of adult entertainment, “deep fakes” or A.I.-generated versions of known celebrities/public figures have been in circulation for quite some time. Based on the information that Nessa described in her video, however, the A.I. avatar creation company is requesting more “data” in the form of her facial expressions and movements in order to create a more comprehensive, and versatile, A.I. avatar based on her actual countenance/personality.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Nessa via email for further information on the company that approached her.
Users seemed to have ambivalent opinions about the nature of the A.I. cash cow proposition. One person appeared to embrace the idea: “over 3 million cash in a year sorry not sorry but sign me up”
Another thought it was a horrifying experience, likening it to a horrifying sci-fi Netflix series: “This is literally the new black mirror episode”
However another person said that if the A.I. company is promising that amount of money in a single week, then they’re probably going to earn much, much more off of folks’ likenesses: “if they give you that much money they are making 10x that money off you”
Someone else applauded Nessa for turning down the offer, while another said: “yea no that’s like selling your soul”
