Mia Zelu is a beautiful blonde who has captured the eye — and hearts — of scores of admirers.
Men peppered her social media account with compliments. Some asked her out.
Others even proposed.
In only five months, she accumulated more than 165,000 followers on Instagram.
She certainly seemed to be wealthy — always wearing the latest fashions, always appearing in the best seats at the biggest events.
Recent Instagram posts pictured her taking in the action at Wimbledon, smiling outside a soccer stadium in Barcelona, and sunning herself on a yacht.
“Stunning young lady,” one admirer commented.
“Your eyes are beautiful blue Mia, I have dark blue eyes, if we had a stare contest you would win everytime lol your gorgeous Mia,” another gushed.
Occasionally, though, someone has spotted the truth and blurted it out, bursting the bubble for all those hopeful suitors.
When you first saw her pictures did you realize she had been created out of nothing?
“She’s not real, guys,” one observer posted.
Mia Zelu, it turns out, is indeed a character generated by artificial intelligence, according to the U.K’s Daily Mail.
The Wimbledon posts on the “miazelu” Instagram account “were so carefully curated that they hoodwinked more than 40,000 people into liking her pictures and leaving comments in the belief that she was real and at the tournament,” the British news outlet reported.
“Her creators, who remain anonymous, explain in a profile that she is an ‘AI storyteller.’”
“Mia is the product of a sophisticated algorithm that generates visual content that appears exceptionally realistic,” The Jerusalem Post reported. “Each post is accompanied by cleverly written and personal text, with a tone that closely mimics the behavior of real people.”
Tennis.com revealed that Mia is the younger AI “sister” of Ana Zelu, “the brunette counterpart to Mia’s blonde haired and blue-eyed persona with nearly identical travel and lifestyle content.”
Ana was launched in January of 2024, while Mia came along in March of this year — and they are only two of a fast-growing list of “virtual influencers” featured on social media platforms.
AI “influencers” have a number of advantages over their human counterparts, according to Tennis.com.
They appeal “to creators who value privacy, and to brands looking for lower-cost, fully controllable marketing options.”
It’s easy to understand the appeal of an AI mascot. A company does not need to worry about a computer-generated spokesperson growing older, gaining weight, or developing wrinkles. There’s no fear that they will get famous and demand a huge raise. And they certainly will not be getting involved in scandals that would embarrass a sponsor.
Perhaps the only drawback is the potential for followers to be taken in by an AI influencer’s realistic appearance.
The Jerusalem Post cited warnings by psychologists, who cautioned against people allowing themselves to be taken in by the realistic computer-generated dialogue or starting to believe they have formed an emotional connection with a digital “person.”
“Such dependency may cause long-term harm,” according to the outlet. “These characters are nonjudgmental, which makes them pleasant—but ultimately, they only simulate emotional support and cannot offer a real relationship.”
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