RIP Lil Miquela

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2016, followers flocked to an Instagram user purporting to be Miquela Sousa, a 19-year-old Brazilian-American model, singer, and sometimes activist.

For years, no one was quite sure if Miquela was made-up, or to what degree. Was she a model rendered doll-like by filters? An actress? A totally fictional character?

Her ambiguous humanity helped Miquela land lucrative brand partnerships with the likes of BMW and Calvin Klein. But in recent years, interest in her has been slipping. Writer Mercedes Gonzales-Bazan joins Endless Thread to talk about Miquela's mysterious origin story, and what her declining relevance reveals about our current relationship with AI.

You can read Mercedes Gonzales-Bazan's essay, Death of the Artificial Influencer, here.

Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. The host is Ben Brock Johnson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can sense to glory.
0:02.0	If this is started something.
0:04.0	Feel it in your bone.
0:05.0	Wow!
0:06.0	The quarterfinals.
0:08.0	Unstappable. Full of vivid nerve-wracking moments
0:10.0	where every decision costs more means more and makes history.
0:17.0	This is where the season is defined.
0:19.0	Oh, it's matching.
0:20.0	Every game.
0:22.0	Total. The U Total are missable.
0:24.0	The UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League
0:28.0	only on TNT sports.
0:30.0	The cleaner the engine, the less fuel you use.
0:33.0	New S.O. Supreme Plus 99 petrol,
0:36.0	Triple cleans and protects your engine
0:38.0	to help give you more miles per tank.
0:41.0	It's a little like soaking with a tail wind.
0:47.0	Or walking with extra long legs.
0:52.0	New Eso Supreme Plus 99. Long legs.
0:53.0	New Eso Supreme Plus 99, a fuel you could use less of.
0:57.2	That's thoughtful driving.
	...

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