These Women Are Not Real

These women have millions of Instagram followers, front-row seats at fashion week and the latest designer clothes … but they’re not real. This new social-media trend is the most futuristic yet: computer-generated avatars that look, talk and behave like real people. But, asks HANNAH-ROSE YEE, is this really the future of the influencer industry?

- Hannah-Rose Yee

Miquela Sousa has a constellation of freckles dusted across her nose. Every week she posts a selfie featuring those freckles to 1.4 million followers via her booming Instagram account, @lilmiquela.

She is 19 years old. She is a slashie – model-slash-singer-slash influencer extraordinaire – with two ear-wormy singles that have 1.5 million monthly streams on Spotify, and she lives in Los Angeles. Miquela gets hangovers, goes to the gym and loves ice cream, Alexander Wang and the religious experience that was ‘Beychella’ (Beyoncé’s – aka Queen Bey – spectacular 2018 Coachella performance).

‘My days vary depending on my mood,’ Miquela tells me over email. ‘I guess you could say I’m a late riser. I usually get out of bed around 11am.’ On an average day she heads to her music studio or catches up with friends. In the evenings she follows a strict routine: she washes her face (‘I’ve been told never to go to bed with a dirty face!’), meditates and switches on her lavender oil diffuser. ‘Winding down at the end of the day is particularly tough for me,’ she says. ‘But I’ve found this routine really helps calm my mind.’

So far, so normal. But Miquela is not like you or me. In her words, she is a robot designed by Brud, an enigmatic Californian company that specialises in ‘robotics [and] artificial intelligence’, although many people believe she is merely a digital avatar. Make no mistake: although she poses in real-world scenarios alongside real people (such as Australian influencer Margaret Zhang and the actor Tracee Ellis Ross), and although she works with brands such as Prada – and sat front row at its February fashion show – she is not a human being.