The Making of a Computer-Generated Influencer

By Yoree Koh and Georgia Wells

Miquela Sousa, who recently graced billboards from London to Japan as part of an Ugg advertising campaign, ticks off all the boxes for a model of the moment: She is exotic, attractive and huge on Instagram.

She is also entirely fake, a computer-generated character who-despite what she says on Instagram-can’t feel the pain of a hangover or appreciate how hard it is to walk in stilettos.

Miquela was created by a Los Angeles startup called Brud, which is betting that it can turn her and an expanding group of CGI-based social-media personalities into a cast of characters that is one part Marvel Comics and one part Kardashian. Like comic-book characters or even Barbie, they can evolve with the times without aging. And their drama can be managed.

“You can create the Kardashians without any of the inherent issues that come with being human,” said Cyan Banister, a partner at Founders Fund, which put in $100,000 for Brud’s seed round in May 2017.

Brud earlier this year raised an additional $6 million in venture capital from firms including Sequoia Capital and BoxGroup, according to people familiar with the situation.

Over the past decade, social media’s so-called influencers have become online celebrities thanks to daily postings about beauty how-tos, videogames and pranks. They have also become highly sought-after brand ambassadors.
Miquela, sometimes called Lil Miquela, is a test of the power of social-media celebrity. She also flies in the face of the latest trend in digital marketing, in which advertisers and influencers say users are clamoring for content that is “authentic” rather than overly glossy and curated.

Miquela is anything but authentic.

Brud launched Miquela on Instagram in 2016. With carefully composed images, she appeared lifelike and didn’t identify herself as artificial until April as part of a staged drama that played out over a series of posts. Over ensuing months, the Miquela character on Instagram professed to be angry at Brud for lying to her about her true origin story.

If Miquela were human, her 1.5 million followers on Instagram could command about $12,000-$25,000 per post to promote a product, according to experts in influencer marketing.

Like human influencers, Miquela posts photos showing herself at premium restaurants such as Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the New York City suburbs, which features a menu for January that costs more than $400 with drinks. In addition to collaborating with high-end fashion brands-Ugg declined to say what it paid to use Miquela’s image-she has released singles on Spotify.
Brud declined to comment, and it has tried to cultivate an air of mystery around Miquela.

Miquela’s story lines are composed by a group of writers at Brud in Los Angeles, according to people close to the company. Brud co-founder Trevor McFedries, who calls himself the company’s chief of compassion, is a former DJ and songwriter for musicians including Katy Perry and Kesha.

Brud describes itself on its website as a robotics and artificial-intelligence company, but people familiar with the startup say it isn’t primarily a technology company. The website description serves Brud’s claim that it reprogrammed Miquela after saving her from the machinations of another artificial-intelligence company. “It’s all performance art,” said a person familiar with Brud.

Ms. Banister and other investors say they believe social media can mature into another medium for the creation of characters with all sorts of powers and personal histories, as comic books have done. From there, the characters can be deployed for product deals, movies or headlining their own Netflix shows, said Kara Nortman, a partner at Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures. Ms. Nortman said she didn’t end up investing in Brud because of timing issues, but introduced Mr. McFedries to other venture capitalists who ultimately invested.
Brud wants to create a suite of characters, some of whom exist on different social-media platforms, with multiple interweaving story lines in the same vein as the Marvel universe, according to Ms. Banister. Earlier this year, a new blond-haired blue-eyed character named Bermuda made her debut as a villain.

She was the antithesis to Miquela, who supported Black Lives Matter and was confused about her nonhuman background. Bermuda was a Trump supporter and proud to be fake.

Some wonder whether Miquela’s shelf life can survive beyond her novelty as a CGI influencer, especially now that the mystery around her back story has been revealed.

“I think the success of digital talent is in their engagement and their authenticity,” said Adam Wescott, partner at Select Management Group, a a talent-management firm for influencers. “And to what extent can you be authentic if ultimately you’re not even a real being?”

When 22-year-old Sarah Peretz first encountered Lil Miquela’s posts, she had a “small-scale existential crisis,” she said. Ms. Peretz, who works as a social-media consultant, said it was disconcerting for her to not know what was real as she dug into the stories behind Brud’s characters.

“When you walk into a movie, you know where that line is,” she said. “This feels manipulative and deceptive.”

At the same time, she said Brud is “doing an incredible job at storytelling” and that the drama often pulls her in.

Investors point to the success of Hatsune Miku, a Japanese holographic singer who has performed to sold out arenas, as a signal that people are ready to embrace nonhumans as celebrities. Consumer behavior in Asia tends to be a few years ahead of the U.S., said Natalie Dillon, a senior associate at Maveron, a venture-capital firm.

Brud’s backers acknowledge they are making a gamble about where pop culture is headed.

“A lot could go wrong. This is highly speculative,” Ms. Banister said. “Having a few million followers on Instagram is exciting, but becoming a world-wide recognizable brand like the Kardashians is the goal.”

To do that, the characters and their stories have to be compelling. There has already been some editing. Bermuda, who has about 120,000 Instagram followers, has been remade into a gentler character after her villainous streak didn’t resonate as strongly with users. Her previously loud right-wing political thoughts have also been played down.