Music <\/p>\n
First came the AI beauty pageant. Then the AI music contests. Now, there is an award for AI Personality of the Year \u2014 perhaps the inevitable next step for the AI influencer economy as it fights for legitimacy amid an onslaught of AI slop and grifters and transforms from quirky novelty into a serious and lucrative industry.<\/p>\n
The contest, a joint venture between generative AI studio OpenArt and AI-powered creator platform Fanvue, with backing from AI voice company ElevenLabs, opens on Monday and runs for a month. The organizers said it is intended to \u201ccelebrate the creative talent \u2018behind\u2019 AI Influencers\u201d and recognize their growing commercial and cultural clout.<\/p>\n
Contestants will compete for a total prize fund of $90,000, which will be split between an overall winner and individual categories of fitness, lifestyle, comedian, music and dance entertainer, and fictional cartoon, anime, or fantasy personality. Victors will be celebrated at an event in May that the organizers are dubbing the \u201c\u2018Oscars\u2019 for AI personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
To enter, you must develop your AI influencer on OpenArt\u2019s platform and submit it at www.AIpersonality.ai<\/a>. You\u2019ll be asked for social media handles across TikTok, X, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as the story behind the character, your motivations for creating it, and details of any brand work.<\/p>\n Among those assessing contestants are 13\u2011time Emmy\u2011winning comedy writer Gil Rief, the creators of Spanish AI model Aitana Lopez<\/a>, and Christopher \u201cTopher\u201d Townsend<\/a>, the MAGA rapper behind AI-generated gospel singer Solomon Ray<\/a>. According to a copy of the judges\u2019 briefing seen by The Verge<\/em>, contestants will be scored on four criteria: quality, social clout, brand appeal, and the inspiration behind the avatar. Specific points include reliably engaging with followers, portraying a consistent look across social channels, accurate details like having the \u201cright number of fingers and thumbs,\u201d and having \u201can authentic narrative\u201d behind the avatar.<\/p>\n The contest is open to established creators and novices alike, though existing AI influencers will still need to submit material produced on OpenArt\u2019s platform, Matt Jones, head of brand at Fanvue, told The Verge.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite being designed to celebrate creators of virtual influencers, Jones said that entrants don\u2019t need to publicly identify themselves. \u201cIf a person who created this amazing piece of work wants nothing to do with the press or to expose themselves or to have their name out there, that\u2019s obviously fine,\u201d he said. \u201cThere would be no need to thrust anybody into the limelight here. We would just celebrate the piece of work.\u201d<\/p>\n That creators can remain anonymous feels odd for a contest judging authenticity, particularly in an AI influencer ecosystem built on fictional people, fake personas, and fabricated backstories. That same anonymity has also helped grifts flourish with little accountability, from the AI white nationalist rapper Danny Bones<\/a> to MAGA fantasy girl Jessica Foster<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an email sent after the original version of this story was published, Lewis Davey, founder and creative director of Idea Farm, a PR agency working with Fanvue, clarified that \u201call entries do need to share their personal details to enter,\u201d adding that \u201cany offensive AI Influencers or offensive content would not meet the awards entry rules.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s additional baggage too, including persistent questions about originality, whether AI-generated work, or even a likeness, has been lifted from real creators, and whether these tools simply reproduce the same old biases in synthetic form. Organizer Fanvue has already faced criticism for this in the past: in 2024, a Guardian <\/em>columnist described<\/a> its \u201cMiss AI\u201d beauty pageant as something that \u201ctake(s) every toxic gendered beauty norm and bundle(s) them up into a completely unrealistic package.\u201d<\/p>\n To Fanvue\u2019s Jones, creators inevitably leave something of themselves in the AI characters they make. \u201cYou can\u2019t help but put a little bit of yourself into the stories that you tell and the characters that you make,\u201d he said, urging creators to \u201clean into that.\u201d The idea feels at home in the influencer economy: not strictly real, but a form of synthetic authenticity the internet already knows how to handle.<\/p>\n Update, March 23rd<\/strong>: We\u2019ve updated the story to clarify how anonymity requests will be treated.<\/em><\/p>\n Update, March 23rd<\/em><\/strong>: An earlier version of the article stated the total prize fund was $20,000 based on incorrect information in the press release provided by the companies. The total prize fund was $90,000.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n\n