Hey friend,
How are you? I hope you’re doing well.
The gist:
At its simplest level, today’s story is about people who want to leverage the latest tech but end up being exploited by it.
It’s hard to believe, but it was merely three years ago, when the Metaverse and NFTs reigned strong, when the concept of “Digital Twin” broke out. People invested in virtual assets, even real estate, and brand-name luxury handbags had digital twins with NFT price tags. Fast-forward to today, with AI, we start seeing virtual avatars representing real actors. I covered this in a story about how Hollywood uses, for example, a younger AI likeness of Tom Hanks in movies like Here. Now, we start seeing how social networks like TikTok hire people for digital avatars as part of their advertising library. As you’ll see, the program undercompensates people and plugs their avatars to advertise any product, in any language with no control.
Find out why this is critical through a bunch of stories of people renting their likeness. Lastly, I’ll share ways you can responsibly use digital avatars in your visual storytelling.
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