It’s become normal now to see social media avatars and advertising images created with AI technology. But when does this become a problem? And when is it criminal?
At present, most of the images look a bit cheap and exaggerated, and are often easy to spot.
But they are still alluring, it seems, since a 33-year-old man in Osaka called Kaiga Yokota has been arrested for creating an overly realistic female character.
The issue is that he posed as this character, Miru Nanase, attracting followers on social media (to the tune of 90,000 on Twitter/X). So far so harmless, but Yokota’s real intent was to sell his services as a dating consultant.
Most of the videos on YouTube have a small number of views, but this one from six months ago has nearly 7,000.
Miru Nanase is meant to be 21 years and a natural H cup. Would the video fool you?
It all came to a head in early December, when Yokota was arrested on allegations of fraud.
Specifically, he sold advice on dating to a 35-year-old man in Nara Prefecture in April and May, receiving a total of ¥1.25 million (over $8,100). The money was also supposed to be for FX trading.
The Miru Nanase social media channels on Instagram and Twitter/X have since disappeared.
Yokota agrees that a transaction did indeed take place, but that he did not deceive the victim. Ultimately, does it all come down to how much he was convinced by the AI model? And is it a crime for Yokota not to give his real name and details to his customer?
As SoraNews24 quite rightly points out, what Yokota is not so different from a person who creates a VTuber character. However, because he was trying to sell his services as a consultant under the guide of Miru Nanase, it appears deceptive. Lonely men look at her image and think she can help, and are willing to pay. Would they have done the same if they had known she was the brainchild of a 33-year-old guy from Osaka?
The infiltration into our lives of AI content is inevitable, but when you’re selling an idol’s image, you have to tread carefully or risk a backlash, as one publisher discovered earlier this year with its AI-generated model.
