If you’ve scrolled past an ad on TikTok for Nexon’s gooner-looter-shooter The First Descendant you might not have noticed it was made by AI. But if you watch one of them for more than a second, you’ll probably figure it out. Each one features an AI streamer rambling about the new boss Wall Crasher and maybe the Nier: Automata crossover while doing an odd headbob that I assume is supposed to make their rubber faces look more excited and emphatic. (The way one of them pronounces “Automata” sounds ridiculous, but has probably been trained on real people struggling to say it.)
Instead of hiring proper influencers, these ads have AI imitations of actual streamers like DanieltheDemon pretending to be as excited about The First Descendant as he is about Warframe. It’s not a subtle similarity either, but clearly an AI that’s been trained on an actual person.
Because ads on TikTok are unlisted, you won’t see these on Nexon’s official channel, but they have continued being shown to users even after a backlash began on the official subreddit.
We’ve seen high-end fashion magazines resort to using an AI-generated model because apparently it’s too much hassle to find an attractive blonde woman somewhere in the world of modeling, but this feels like a real low. There are plenty of regular streamers out there you could hire to cut a promo for your mid-tier shlooter. This seems more like the thing you create because management has paid for a bunch of AI tools after reading how essential they are on LinkedIn and keeps insisting you find a use for them.
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