Influencers help brands to sell products by creating content on social media — the concept is certainly not new. How about virtual ones? It depends on what we assume "virtual" means because, in the advertising field, it is not new either. The technology makes this different, but humans are still in the machine. The point is that testimonials have been around since the beginning of advertising, as such virtual ones. You can think of celebrities, authorities in the field, fictional characters, and cartoon characters. As technology has evolved, so have the techniques to create and make them more believable, likable, engaging, relatable, and even more real.Nowadays, there is a tendency in our society — well, marketing is responsible for a lot of that hype — to use the words Artificial Intelligence, Augmented, and Virtual Reality, even when it is not precisely that. Nevertheless, our society is moving faster on the technology highway, and some blurriness is justified. Sometimes.So these virtual influencers, also called virtual humans — what are they, and, most of all, what are not? What do they do, and what they could do?Maybe they are not exactly sentient, but there are human that makes them seems so.Confused? We were too. So we invited on the show Astrid Hiort, a digital creative and journalist, specializing in content for virtual influencers and digital fashion.Join us, or maybe our digital twins?____________________________GuestAstrid HiortContributing Writer at VirtualHumans.org [@virtual_humans] https://www.virtualhumans.org/writer/astrid-hiortOn LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/astrid-hiort/On Medium | https://medium.com/@astrid.hiort____________________________Resources ____________________________This Episode’s SponsorsBugcrowd 👉 https://itspm.ag/itspbgcwebBlackCloak 👉 https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb____________________________To see and hear more Redefining Society stories on ITSPmagazine, visit:https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-societyAre you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorships

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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