Welcome to the future, where AI Drag Race is more popular than the real thing and your favorite twink is actually a robot. The AI influencers are here, they’re queer, and they’re already in your feed. But is this a win for representation, or just rainbow capitalism gone digital?
Old-fashioned queer influencers often serve up a delightful combination of entertainment and activism. Take the Old Gays, for example: a gorgeous gaggle of gay daddies who serenade us from their enviable Palm Springs pool and teach us about queer history. But they aren’t just entertaining — they’re educators, historians and revolutionaries who draw upon their life experiences to help us young bloods live our best queer lives. The Old Gays blend politics, fashion and fun in a way that makes you want to throw on a caftan and rally in the streets.
AI influencers don’t have life experience and therefore can’t be political, right? It’s tempting to draw that conclusion. But, alas, that’s not how it works.
“We assume AI is neutral, but it’s never neutral,” says Lilla Vicsek, a sociology professor at the University of Budapest who studies the social implications of AI. “It reflects the priorities and perspectives of those who build it, and those perspectives are shaped by politics, by capitalism, by culture.”
