The individual, presented as a young American woman, regularly shared posts combining patriotic messaging with attention-grabbing visuals, quickly gaining traction among followers. Within weeks of its launch, the account amassed thousands of followers, with some posts drawing millions of views.
The creator reportedly used AI tools to design the character’s appearance, generate content, and tailor messaging to appeal to a specific audience segment.
The person behind the now-exposed AI influencer is Sam (pseudonym), a 22-year-old medical student from north India, training to become an orthopedic surgeon. While he received some financial support from his family, he said much of it went towards covering the costs of his exams. With plans to eventually move to the United States, he began searching for additional ways to earn money online.
He experimented with several side hustles, including creating YouTube Shorts and selling study notes to fellow students. The turning point, he said, came while browsing social media, where he decided to create an AI-generated girl using Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro. Sam then turned to Gemini AI to generate a virtual female persona crafted specifically for the “MAGA/conservative niche,” reported WIRED.
He created a digital character that “the conservative audience (especially older men in the US) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal.” And then Emily Hart was born last January, a registered nurse with Jennifer Lawrence’s look.
On Instagram, created for the AI persona, @emily_hart.nurse, the creator regularly shared images featuring her in activities such as ice fishing and shooting. These posts were paired with emoji-laden captions like “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” and “POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal.”
According to the report, the individual behind the account monetised its popularity through merchandise sales and paid content platforms.
AI-generated profiles on the rise
The incident also brought to light a broader trend of AI-generated influencers and fake personas gaining traction across social media platforms. In a separate instance shared online, a user pointed out an account featuring an AI-generated woman with over 1,00,000 followers, further underscoring how widespread and convincing such profiles have become.
The influencer named Vrutika Patel has an active social media presence. She appears like a typical lifestyle and fashion content creator, but is entirely artificial. Despite not being a real person, the account has managed to build a paying audience. Reports suggest that with around 300+ subscribers paying ₹399 per month, the profile generates over ₹1 lakh in monthly income.
Another in the list is Naina Avtr, a 22-year-old Mumbai-based virtual superstar with over 3.75 lakh followers.
She focuses on fashion, fitness, and lifestyle and has collaborated with major brands like Nykaa, Puma, and Pepsi.
One of the accounts gaining traction is Kira, widely recognized as India’s first virtual influencer. She is a Mumbai-based digital fashion model with over 2.5 lakh followers and has worked with brands such as Amazon Prime Video and boAt.
These episodes point to a wider trend where AI-generated influencers are rapidly gaining popularity across social media platforms, often going unnoticed by users.
