Meet Gigi: The AI Influencer Taking Over Social Media

Sat Dec 27 2025 15:05:11 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Gigi, an AI-generated character by Simone Mckenzie, is changing the influencer game by creating viral content faster than traditional influencers. Explore how AI is disrupting social media norms.

Gigi, an AI influencer created by University of Illinois student Simone Mckenzie, is gaining millions of views on TikTok. Unlike traditional influencers who require extensive setup and time for content creation, Gigi can produce videos quickly with AI assistance, raising questions about the future of human influencers in a rapidly growing $250 billion industry. As AI creators rise to prominence, both delight and concern exist regarding their impact on authenticity and misinformation in digital media.

In some ways, Gigi is like any other young social media influencer.

With perfect hair and makeup, she logs on and talks to her fans. She shares clips: eating, doing skincare, putting on lipstick. She even has a cute baby who appears in some videos.

But after a few seconds, something may seem a little off.

She can munch on pizza made out of molten lava, or apply snowflakes and cotton candy as lip gloss. Her hands sometimes pass through what she's holding.

That's because Gigi isn't real. She's the AI creation of University of Illinois student Simone Mckenzie - who needed to make some money over the summer.

Ms Mckenzie, 21, is part of a fast-growing cohort of digital creators who churn out a stream of videos by entering simple prompts into AI chatbots, like Google Veo 3. Experts say this genre, dubbed 'AI slop' by some critics and begrudging viewers, is taking over social media feeds.

And its creators are finding considerable success.

One video made me $1,600 [£1,185] in just four days, Ms Mckenzie said. I was like, okay, let me keep doing this.

After two months, Gigi had millions of views, making Ms Mckenzie thousands through TikTok's creator fund, a programme that pays creators based on how many views they get. But she's far from the only person using AI to reach easy virality, experts said.

It's surging right now and it's probably going to continue, said Jessa Lingel, associate professor and digital culture expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

Its progenitors - who can generate videos of literally anything in just a few minutes - have the potential to disrupt the lucrative influencer economy.

But while some say AI is ruining social media, others see its potential to democratise who gains fame online, Lingel said. Those who don't have the money or time for a fancy background, camera setup or video editing tools can now go viral, too.