Khaby Lame digital twin: You saw him everywhere in 2020, from reacting to over-the-top life hacks to becoming the Zach King of COVID. Khaby Lame is one of the world’s most followed social media creators. Recently, he struck a deal, just shy of $1 billion, with Rich Sparkle Holdings and gave full consent to creating his AI-powered digital twin. This virtual twin will be able to create a life-size replica of a human.
The $975 million deal authorises the use of his personal brand, Face ID, voice ID, and behavioural models. What started as short-form videos on social media after a layoff gained him over 77 million followers on Instagram and 160 million on TikTok.
How will Khaby Lame’s digital twin be created?
The company brainstorming the ‘twin’ will be able to replicate Lame’s facial features, voice patterns, and mannerisms. According to a report, “[Lame] has also authorised the development of an AI-powered digital twin. A digital twin is a virtual replica of something real, whether it be a place, an object, or a person.”
This will not only mimic Lame’s characteristics but also create multilingual content, feasible for livestreams, almost creating a digital doppelganger. As per Rich Sparkle, the deal estimates a profit of $4 billion in sales.
This comes after several conventional celebrities, like Hollywood and Bollywood actors, have rallied for personality rights. They have sought legal protection from the usage of AI to recreate their persona, without consent, for promotions or other malicious purposes. The list includes several stars from India like Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor and others. Hollywood faces like Scarlett Johansson, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, and others also have personality rights.
This deal is one of the biggest in history, regarding the personal branding of influencers and public figures. A new face of AI, this will open new avenues to branding, marketing, and campaign budgeting, changing the overall relationship audiences hold with creators online.
‘Synthetic baptism’ – Internet reacts
While the larger part of intellectuals on X (formerly Twitter) refer to him as the ‘influencer who got arrested by ICE,’ others question the ‘technological innovation.’ A user wrote on social media that if a person sold his voice, behaviour, timing, and other traits, “it wasn’t a partnership. It was a synthetic baptism. You are witnessing the first wave of influencer transubstantiation. Not from human to icon and from icon to asset.”
“Now they own your nervous system. Now they copyright your microexpressions. Now they broadcast your ghost, while you’re still alive,” penned the concerned user. “Data and automation are the new gold,” remarked a user, calling Lame 1 per cent of the 1 per cent – an anomaly. “He literally sold his soul,” wrote a netizen echoing the thoughts of many others.
“This will not be a profitable venture. His videos were fun during COVID. Not anymore,” predicted another fan on X. “Will he keep his fanbase once people realise it’s not him but AI? It will be interesting to see,” remarked the Internet, questioning whether this will become the new normal.
