Personally Chatting With Celebrities: Influencing Powered By MyCompanions

Welcome to this week’s Deep-fried Dive with Fry Guy! In these long-form articles, Fry Guy conducts an in-depth analysis of a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) development or developer. Today, Fry Guy is exploring MyCompanions, a tool that allows social influencers to engage in individual discussions with a larger number of their fans. We hope you enjoy!

*Notice: We do not gain any monetary compensation from the people and projects we feature in the Sunday Deep-fried Dives with Fry Guy. We explore these projects and developers solely for the purpose of revealing to you interesting and cutting-edge AI projects, developers, and uses.*

Ever wish you could talk to your favorite celebrity or social influencer, one-on-one?

Unfortunately, when you are one follower in a sea of five million, having a personal interaction with your favorite celebrity feels like a shot in the dark. But with the help of MyCompanions, this dream might become a reality.

MyCompanions is an AI tool which allows celebrities and influencers to clone themselves in the form of an AI chatbot and engage with their fans individually.

A BROADER REACH

Raymond Dong, co-founder of MyCompanions, has noticed a significant gap in the AI market over the past two years. The social influencer and creator economy has taken off, with no indication of slowing down. But when it comes to AI-enabled tools to help them capitalize on this growth, Dong noticed that there are not many resources available. This is where MyCompanion comes in.

MyCompanions offers an AI-enabled messenger for influencers to engage with their fans. As Dong points out, “Influencers, especially larger ones, have thousands and even millions of followers which makes it very hard to have one-on-one conversations.” MyCompanions aims to amplify and enable these personalized conversations.

The MyCompanions tool is trained through a comprehensive and personalized onboarding process. Dong explains “We train the model to mimic their likeness, image, voice, and interests, and we are continually improving the model based on the topics that matter to the creator and what they want to share with their fans.” During this onboarding process, the influencers can also determine which topics are off limits and what information they feel comfortable sharing. In this way, the influencer’s AI companion can provide personalized conversational opportunities for fans that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

On the part of the celebrity, there is also an opportunity to scale out their business model and influence. For example, one of the influencers that uses the platform is a runway model. Through natural conversation led by AI, she can offer exclusive photos from her photoshoots along with some background information about the photoshoot for a fee or tip. This allows the influencer to capitalize on their content via exclusive, conversational offerings.

Currently, the MyCompanions tool is integrated with Telegram, but the roadmap includes integrations like Instagram and even text messaging as well.

TALKING WITH A PERSON OR A BOT?

One of the intriguing aspects of the MyCompanions tool is that influencers and celebrities can seamlessly enter and exit conversations with their fans without the fan knowing. For the influencer, this allows for a seamless interaction which allows them to share more personalized insights with their fans. For the fan, however, this raises some questions.

On one hand, some fans would undoubtedly be ecstatic to talk to their favorite celebrity or influencer in the form of an AI bot, getting a behind-the-scenes look at their life. This gives the fan an opportunity to learn more about their favorite celebrity and enjoy interactive and dynamic conversations.

On the other hand, some fans might find this feature disingenuous. It might be frustrating for some fans to chat with a clone of their favorite celebrity, unaware if they are talking to the celebrity themselves or to an AI companion. Part of a fan’s dream is not only to know their favorite celebrity more personally, but also to be known by them. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that even if one isn’t talking directly to their favorite celebrity, they are still able to gain access to the thoughts of the celebrity indirectly. So whether they are interacting with a real person or an AI-generated personality, what matters most is the value and enjoyment they derive from the content. Dong affirms this, as he believes, “People care less about whether its AI or the person as long as they know that they are learning about their favorite influencer or creator.”

One dimension of the platform that might cause some relief for troubled fans is that the MyCompanions model is undergoing constant improvement of AI models based on creator preferences and experiences. In this way, the AI models are continuously refined based on the topics that matter to the creators, which ensures that the conversations remain relevant and engaging. For example, a celebrity might offer exclusive pictures behind the scenes of a recent photoshoot or provide their opinions on real time social events in ways that go beyond their publicly available posts. This ensures that conversations remain realistic and the content never runs dry.

So although some fans might be bothered they are not speaking with their favorite celebrity, the vision behind MyCompanions is not to deceive fans, but to enhance their access to personalized content through a conversational chatbot. In this way, fans who prioritize engaging and meaningful content will have a new resource for exploring the personality of their favorite celebrity.

“I DIDN’T SAY THAT … MY COMPANION DID”

While AI-powered tools like MyCompanions offer exciting opportunities for influencers to engage with their fans, there are concerns about an influencer’s AI companion potentially saying things that the influencers themselves wouldn’t want to say. This could potentially damage the reputation of the celebrity. The MyCompanions team takes these concerns seriously and has implemented methods to help ensure safe and ethical conversations.

As mentioned previously, during the onboarding process, influencers have the ability to provide a list of topics that they would prefer to avoid during conversations with fans. This allows the AI models to be trained to censor sensitive topics based on influencer preferences, ensuring conversations remain respectful and are aligned with the influencer’s values.

Another measure MyCompanions has undertaken to ensure ethical and respectful dialogue is through the development of a proprietary technology which allows influencers to seamlessly turn their AI companion on and off. This way, the influencer can actively participate in conversations when they choose, ensuring that they have control over the content being shared. And if a problem should arise, the influencer can turn off their companion and address the issue before it escalates.

Privacy and control are also top priorities for MyCompanions. Influencers have access to their own dashboards where they can review and manage their conversations. Dong emphasizes, “We provide the software, but they are the ones who are talking to their fans—whether it is AI or themselves.” By managing their own dashboard, influencers can see all the interactions that have taken place between their AI companion and their fans and have the ability to message fans directly if they come across a particularly interesting conversation between a fan and their AI companion. This level of privacy and control allows influencers to maintain a sense of ownership over their interactions, also ensuring this conversational data is not shared.

As AI technology continues to evolve and the social landscape continually shifts, the MyCompanions team is aware that more ethical issues might arise and need addressed. However, they remain committed to ensuring the quality, authenticity, and ethical nature of the conversations between influencers and their fans. As Dong says, “We are constantly monitoring the AI, ensuring it doesn’t go out of bounds.”

CONVERSATIONS GOING FORWARD

Social influencers and celebrities flood our media streams, and oftentimes this content is too general for fans to feel truly engaged. This new approach to influencer-fan interaction, powered by AI, offers a solution which can streamline communication for influencers and allow fans a behind-the-scenes look into the lives of their most admired people.

With the future of AI in the creator economy looking promising, celebrities and influencers should look for ways to leverage AI to stay competitive and adapt to the changing landscape. The possibilities for AI integration in the creator economy are endless, and MyCompanions is at the forefront of empowering influencers to leverage AI and enhance their interactions with fans.

For influencers, MyCompanions is allowing for personalized engagement with fans and new opportunities for economic growth on social platforms. And whether you’re a super-fan or a casual follower, MyCompanions is shaping a future where you can truly feel like one in a million.

WANT TO SEE THE FULL INTERVIEW?

Our FryAI team sat down with Raymond Dong, founder of MyCompanions, to discuss the project as well as the capabilities of AI in personality cloning. You can view the full conversation here: