The influencer Francesca Giubelli which on Instagram counts approximately 10,000 followers is not a really existing person: it is avirtual influencer designed and created in 2020 using tools artificial intelligence from Francesco Giuliani, Emiliano Belmonte And Valeria Fossatelli, following an in-depth analysis of the contents and interactions with users of the most successful social media profiles, with the aim of creating the profile of a 24-year-old Mediterranean girl. It is no coincidence that by browsing the profile of thevirtual influencer we find ourselves faced with the most popular topics on Italian social media, from fashion to pets, from food to football, from health to politics. Recently Francesca Giubelli's Instagram profile was recognized by the Meta team with the “blue check”: it is the first time that the verification badge is released to an Italian virtual influencer.
Digital influencers are starting to become a large-scale phenomenon around the world. The profile with the highest number of followers is @magazineluiza with 6.9 million followers on Instagram. In the last digital influencer reportdated 2022hosted by Hype Auditor we read that many companies are increasing their interest in creator AI for marketing purposes, making them testimonials of advertising campaigns for products or services. For example, Amazon recently used a campaign led by Indian digital influencer Kyra to promote the show The Peripheral on Prime Video. According to the public, the public response to these types of operations is not always positive. Furthermore, some advertising agencies have introduced services dedicated exclusively to the creation of virtual influencers.
In short, we are faced with a new way of marketing, which in the case of Francesca Giubelli it also flows into politics, given its recentness “descend into the field” within a new political party. This makes us reflect on the fact that tools and contents of this kind, which will reasonably increase over time on the various social networks, are destined to give rise to a debate of type ethical And regulatory. In this regard, only a few months ago YouTube took a stand towards content generated through artificial intelligence, forcing creators to show a badges that indicated that the video displayed was produced with these techniques and therefore not closely related to something really happened.
