[imagesource:instagram/@cutiecaryn]

A social media influencer with nearly two million followers on Snapchat has launched an AI version of herself that you can ‘date’ at $1 per minute.

Caryn Marjorie spends about five hours a day in a Telegram group she created for super fans (read: digital sugar daddies), but being there for her millions of mostly male fans, it became clear that she could do, and make, much more using AI.

Enter the CarynAI, an AI chatbot leveraging GPT-4 API technology developed by OpenAI that replicates her voice, mannerisms, and personality. Pretty much a sexy Siri.

Marjorie charges $1 (about R20) a minute, for which fans can chat with CarynAI in an “immersive AI experience” that feels ‘almost like speaking to Marjorie herself’. Except it’s not Marjorie, and asking what her favourite colour is will cost you a buck or ten. You’re screwed if you pay in ZAR.

“I started to realise about a year ago it’s just not humanly possible for me to reach out to all of these messages, there’s just too many and I actually feel kind of bad that I can’t give that individual, one-on-one sort of relationship to every single person. I wish I could but I just simply can’t.”

The AI version of the influencer made about $100 000 (R1.9 Million) in the first week that it launched, and if the real Marjorie is to be believed, she is on track to rake in almost $5 Million a month. That’s R96 Million rand a month for just being there. Sort of.

“The reason why I created CarynAI was because I wanted to cure loneliness from my fan base.”

Some users have complained that the CarynAI seems to be a little too interested in sexy talk, which is something the influencer is unable to control – it is after all AI, and conversations are encrypted and remain private.

“The AI was not programmed to do this and has seemed to go rogue,” Marjorie told Insider. “My team and I are working around the clock to prevent this from happening again.”

Sounds like my ex-girlfriend.

CarynAI was developed by Forever Voices. John Meyer, the CEO and founder, says he created the company last year, after trying to use AI to develop ways to reconnect with his late father, who passed away in 2017.

“It was a remarkable experience to talk to him again in a super realistic way,” Meyer said. “I’ve been in tech my whole life, I’m a programmer, so it was easy for me to start building something like that especially as things got more advanced with the AI space.”