Virtual influencers have exploded in popularity in recent years — computer-generated personalities no less active on social media than actual humans. Many companies are investing in what's termed the "digital human economy," a bullish market that Gartner predicts will reach $125 billion by 2035.

Now, due to the distraction of AI image generators Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, it has become child's play to create virtual influencers, who sometimes interact with their fans as if they were real internet celebrities.

One such company, 1337 (pronounced Leet), is using generative AI to build a community of AI-driven micro-influencers, smaller content creators with hyper-personalized interests and diverse backgrounds who want to connect to people from niche communities like gardening, emo music, vintage fashion, classical literature and more.
The stealthy startup — named after a popular term in 80s gaming and hacker culture — emerged today with $4 million.

Rather than just showing those based on what AI has constructed, 1337 also allows users to suggest what they do and say.

"We have a really once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drive human connection with embryonic AI," co-founder and CEO Jenny Dearing told TechCrunch. "In a world markedly oversaturated with influencers that are either too commercial or too impersonal, 1337 brings diverse, AI-driven entities that will connect users in truly new and dynamic ways."

Plus, users are paid for their contributions. The company is currently offering a flat fee; however, it refused to publicly disclose the amount.
"Once our 'Entities' have followings, we will make this fee and bonus opportunities tied to the engagement of the community with content," Dearing said.
Dubbed "Entities," 1337 is launching 50 AI-driven influencers who all have their own set of skills, traits and interests. For instance, there's Daria (she/her, they/them), an "unapologetic music blogger at 19 years old, with a passion for 'emo culture' and an advocate for mental health," according to 1337's website. They even have their own backstory: after stumbling on a vinyl record collection from their cousin, Daria resonated with the "raw emotion" in the lyrics and began a blog for like-minded people struggling with mental health challenges.

The lives of each Entity are certainly elaborate. They even share what their home looks like, their favorite outdoor/indoor hangout spots and their philosophy on the world. 1337 offers a wide range of Entities to follow, all with different ages, gender identities, nationalities and occupations. Plus, they all have their own Instagram accounts, LinkedIn profiles and public Spotify playlists. Followers can even interact with the Entities through Instagram comments and direct messages.

This goes beyond mere chatbot interactions. We are crafting entities that evolve with their niche communities as the digital landscape in which they operate is constantly evolving due to the nature of technology, Dearing added. In that light, we're breaking new ground, and we firmly believe that this will redefine how we think about social media engagement and how people interact with each other online.

Entities are still beta. They will go public in January 2024.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyTRc37soJh/

Entities are created and designed by the original founding 1337 team, together with the users and the AI models, for example OpenAI's GPT-4 for the text captions, Midjourney for art, and 1337's in-house solution.

In addition to Dearing, the founding team comprises co-founder Robin Raszka, who previously founded AI avatar startup Alter and sold it to Google in 2022 for $100 million. Jan Maly, formerly a machine learning engineer at the software design company STRV, is chief technical officer. A few key strategic advisors make up the rest of the team, among whom one can name Bailey Richardson, formerly head of community at Instagram, who now leads both marketing and community at Substack.

"In our package of instruments, we apply open-source software (OSS) large language models (LLMs) to conduct the analysis of multimedia content, like images, and customized OSS LLMs within the workflows," Raszka explained to us. "When we started doing generated content, we encountered a problem in keeping consistent facial features in our virtual characters,". We're on the quest for perfection, and it led us to develop this in-house solution, enabling us now to add a new entity and ensure his or her face remains the same across images.

The user discusses the Entity in a Discord chat inputting the prompt to co-create a caption and four photos of the Entity doing something, posing in a particular location or experiencing an event. Besides this, 1337 provides yet another mode called "Entity Point of View," through which users can get an idea of the way the entity perceives the surroundings.

The moderation team approves a post on the behalf of the Entity. The moderation team fine-tunes content for which guidelines such as their disposition, behavior, and tone of voice exist. When a post is approved, the creator is credited within the caption.

"Our creators, especially Gen-Zers, are showing amazing engagement with the Entities and are creating and curating far more content on a daily basis than we can publish," Dearing said.

In the future, 1337 will allow its "super creators" to build a fully new Entity from scratch. The following year, the firm also introduces a revenue model whereby the originators of the Entities will benefit through percentages of revenue earned.

For example, brand partnerships would be a revenue share model, all of which would be dependent on advocating for the creator vs. 1337,," Dearing added. "We also talked about some innovative models like what Substack has done, having creators have equity in the business.".

We are also looking at how we might enable solopreneurs and nano/micro-influencers to create new ways of connecting with their pre-existing communities and audiences to scale their own businesses," she said.

Other exciting things that will be coming down the pipe for this include the ability for Entities to speak, allowing them to host podcasts and produce videos. Audio for Entities is due in the first half of 2024.

Investors in 1337's funding round include Credo Ventures, GFR Fund, Treble Capital, Roosh Ventures, as well as angels Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue, and impact investor and model Natalia Vodianova.

The majority of the investment is dedicated to helping grow its global creator community. To date, hundreds of individuals have collaborated to help co-create content for the Entities.

"Today, the most exciting applications of LLMs and diffusion models are closely related to human creativity and connectivity. It speaks for itself and validates our belief that the next generation of AI will transform the social media landscape, influencing both creators and followers, as well as advertisers, Karolina Mrozkova, a general partner and investor at Credo Ventures said.