With just over 5,000 followers, she is still far from competing with the biggest influencers. But after only five months on Instagram, Anne Kerdi is still starting to make a name for herself on the social network. Particularly in Brittany. On her account, the young woman is indeed a formidable ambassador for the region, posing proudly in a bigoudène costume or in the mythical forest of Brocéliande. A lover of good products, she also delights her subscribers, reviewing all the culinary specialties of the region. Without forgetting to give them a whole bunch of anecdotes about the history of Brittany and its main tourist sites.
At first glance, one might believe that this sales representative with the physique of a model was recruited by the regional tourism committee. Except that this famous Anne Kerdi does not exist, at least not physically. She doesn’t hide it. “Breton artificial intelligence”, it is written on his profile.
Promoting Brittany “in a new and innovative way”
We owe this virtual character to Sébastien, a thirty-year-old living in Finistère. The latter has long been passionate about artificial intelligence. “We have been fantasizing about it for so many years in films and it is now becoming accessible and concrete,” he rejoices, convinced that this technology can help us despite all the concerns it arouses. In full professional retraining, the Finistère, very attached to his region, wanted to promote it “but in an innovative and unprecedented way”
It then devours all the artificial intelligence software that exists to generate texts and images. After long hours of tinkering, her virtual character takes shape in the form of the young and beautiful Anne Kerdi. “It was the software that generated his face based on the few indications that I had provided,” he explains. I chose a woman in particular because these programs have no memory and I therefore have to recreate her each time. That’s why the make-up and the length of the hair are sometimes different in the photos, but it was easier to do than for a man. »
This is how Sébastien’s imagination gave birth to this virtual Instagrammer. For the rest, Anne Kerdi is doing well on her own. “I give her themes or cities to highlight, but she is the one who writes her posts with photos generated by AI or collected from other Instagrammers that she credits, specifies the designer. She is the one who also responds to comments even if they are critical messages. I only intervene if there are mistakes and ask him to correct them. »
A way to “open the debate on artificial intelligence”
Among her followers, not everyone seems to have yet understood that Anne Kerdi was the product of artificial intelligence. “Good evening, very beautiful smile,” wrote one of them, trying his luck. While most of the comments are sympathetic, some are also very critical of this initiative. “Or how to dehumanize our little world even more,” we can read. “I can understand that this raises fears,” replies Sébastien. But this account is precisely made to spark debate and for people to have a first contact with artificial intelligence. »
With her growing community, Anne Kerdi is also starting to attract the interest of brands who contact her for sponsored posts. Communities are also very interested, seeing this virtual character as a fantastic promotional tool. “Anne Kerdi is the first of its kind but there will be others in the future,” assures its designer, who is very real.