Not long ago, the FN Meka incident sparked heated discussions in the United States. FN Meka is a black rapper rendered by digital technology . It is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). It officially debuted in April 2019 and has more than 10 million fans on the short video platform TikTok. The virtual internet celebrity is even signing a contract with Capitol, a subsidiary of Eidi Records, to plan to record an album.
However, with the continued discussion of cultural appropriation and racism in American society, FN Meka's "black history" has been revealed - although FN Meka is a virtual image, his creative team is a non-black artist, and the team has criminal experience in his life experience compiled for FN Meka, and let it use racial discriminatory words. All of these have attracted strong public criticism of this "digital black face", Capitol Records had to announce the termination a few weeks after signing, and most of FN Meka's videos on TikTok have also been deleted.
Although the cooperation between large record companies and virtual singers ended in failure, it shows that people are still popular with virtual internet celebrities six years after the first generation of virtual singer and model Lil Miquela became an internet celebrity.
Virtual idols have become extremely influential in China, Japan, South Korea and other countries. Such computer-generated characters are often presented in human form and are often used in large-scale brand and modeling activities. Hatsune Miku, created by Japanese company Crypton Future Media, is one of the most famous virtual idols. Tickets for concerts held with her holographic images are often sold out. She even participated in the 2014 Lady Gaga global tour as an opening guest.
The influence of digital internet celebrities in the United States is not widespread at this stage, but they are becoming increasingly popular. Moreover, such incarnations are revolving around the popular digital collections (NFTs), such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In March this year, WME Entertainment signed the DJ duo in the Boring Ape series and named it the "Escape Plan", which is controlled and maintained by entertainment management company Big Night Talent. The pair has collaborated with American electronic music artist Dillon Francis and rap singer Rich the Kid. Kate Lonczak, WME digital strategy agent in charge of the project, concluded, "The success of the 'escape plan' is even favored by real-life stars because of their successful IP support. Boring Ape Yacht Club is the hottest NFT series at the moment, and these characters have resonated with people. Just expand the scope of this IP to a wider application, give them some interesting backstory, and give people some content to enjoy."
Although the cooperation between Capitol Records and FN Meka failed, this did not extinguish other music companies' enthusiasm for promoting virtual projects. The experimental label "10:22" founded by Universal Music Group executive Celine Joshua signed another four-person group "Kingship" in the Boring Ape Yacht Club. The group has signed a contract with the American Mars Candy Group to launch a joint limited edition chocolate. In addition, Grammy award-winning singer James Fauntleroy and rapper Chauncey Hollis (aka Hit-Boy) were also attracted by the group and decided to create musical works for them.
Adam Friedman, who directs NFT for innovative artist agency (CAA), said: "Each case is unique because the technologies used by specific virtual avatars vary. How consumers interact with it, watch and consume content based on virtual avatars are different."
According to the Danish media company Influencer Marketing Hub, Lil Miquera, who has more than 3 million followers on social media Instagram, can earn $10,000 in revenue from publishing a sponsored content. Although Joshua did not disclose the details of "Kingship"'s income distribution, she told the media that any creators or artists related to the project, including Hit-Boy and Fontler Roy, were included in the copyright distribution model and they would receive secondary royalty income.
Adam Friedman said that the benefits eventually flow to the owner of virtual internet celebrities, but there are often teams behind it. "We usually treat virtual people as humans. For example, Lil Miquela will sign an endorsement shopping website, but it is obvious that virtual people cannot sign a contract, and the team that builds her must do this. It takes a lot of cost to get a virtual internet celebrity to complete the appearance, and this problem can be almost negligible for real-life celebrities. This is easy to understand. If a virtual internet celebrity wants to sign an agreement with the brand or content party, it first needs to create corresponding content. If you want to participate in a TV show as a guest, virtual internet celebrities cannot come to the scene by themselves. You must use digital technology to let them appear and create a "appearance" method for virtual avatars or digital internet celebrities. These costs must be taken into account."
For enterprises and brands, what attracts them to cooperate with AI avatars? Although it may sound a bit exaggerated, the activities initiated in collaboration with digital avatars can go beyond the scope of possible cooperation with humans because they do not require human appearance. The content of the event that cooperates with virtual characters can give marketers a broader planning space. Although the price is not low, compared to real-life celebrities, the cost of signing contracts with virtual Internet celebrities is still cheaper. Large companies such as Louis Vuitton Group, Calvin Klein and Samsung have begun to use digital avatars, and the cooperation around virtual internet celebrities such as the escape plan reveals the next development direction of the digital avatar.
Among sports stars, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Luca Doncic , and golf star Jack Nicklaus , have all cooperated with AI companies to launch their own digital avatars.
However, with the development of technology and the participation of more creators, moral boundaries still need to be taken into account, especially if the digital avatar is based on a real person or mimics the characteristics of human beings, FN Meka is in this case.
Soul Machines is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in New Zealand focusing on virtual digital human research and development. The virtual avatars of Anthony and Nicklaus were made by this company. The company's CEO Greg Cross pointed out that "the ethics, regulatory environment and anti-discrimination laws that exist in the real world cannot be ignored. These cannot be ignored just because they are in the digital world."
He believes that when a company makes digital avatars for celebrities, it must work closely with the image owners or copyright holders of these celebrities, consider carefully, and be consistent with the "brand culture". If you are creating a virtual person who is not based on real people, that is, "synthetic digital person", cultural sensitivity and diversity are priority points that should be paid attention to. The Soul Machine Company has formulated a complete set of ethical policies for these issues and has an ethics committee to review projects.
As for the status of digital avatars in Hollywood , industry insiders analyzed that don’t expect real-life celebrities to completely replace them with their digital avatars. Phil Quist, music agent at CAA, issued a warning, "We are entering an increasingly digital world, but the digital world will not replace face-to-face interaction with real people. We don't want children to be immersed in games, we don't want them to waste time in the virtual world and addicted to it."
picture: Music pioneer, Sina Men's Weibo, etc.
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