Rozy is a South Korean social media personality whose ads are racking up millions of views on YouTube, and she isn’t even a real person.
AI-powered social media star: The influencer, who now has over 58,000 Instagram followers, is actually a virtual human created by South Korean content-creation group Sidus Studio X. She is the first of her kind in Korea to be based on artificial intelligence, reported Korea.net.
- She is reportedly stuck at being 22 years old, 171 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches) tall and subscribes to the “Lion King” motto “Hakuna Matata.” She loves surfing, skateboarding and running, among other activities.
- Introduced in August last year, Rozy was reportedly created by combining the physical attributes most millennials and Gen Zs find most attractive.
- The studio used 3D modeling technology to extract almost 800 facial expressions and movements from an actor.
- According to the studio, no one realized that Rozy was a 3D virtual model during the first three months of her Instagram account.
- Being a virtual person, she is not restricted by physical limitations and can go anywhere in the world, including to hard-to-visit places. Virtual people, like Rozy, are also free from potential scandals, which could affect a star’s marketability.
- So far, Rozy is proving to be a bankable model as her video ad for the Shinhan Life Insurance company has so far been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube.
- Rozy has reportedly landed over 100 sponsorships to date, including one for American carmaker Chevrolet.
- Earlier this year, Rozy was featured in Vogue Korea alongside Shudu, another digital supermodel.
Others like Rozy: The concept of digital celebrities is nothing new to Koreans, who were introduced to digital singer Adam back in 1998, according to the Korea Herald.
- Adam, modeled after actor Won Bin, sold over 200,000 albums as a singer and worked as a commercial model. He earned 500 million won (over $426,000) in his first three months alone.
- South Korea is also home to Sua, another virtual human made using modern visual effect techniques. She is made by developer studio Sua Digital using video game development engine Unity.
- Another virtual influencer, Imma, from Japan, is a computer graphic model whose 3D- animated head is transposed onto a live-action body and background. Created by CG company ModelingCafe, Imma has been around for over two years now and has over 349,000 followers on Instagram.
Featured Image via rozy.gram
