AI-Generated Black Avatars Used to Sell Cheap Products on TikTok

Scammers are using AI-generated avatars of Black women to sell mass-produced, dropshipped products on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. The avatars, like "Aliyah" and "Amaya," appear as small business owners struggling to sell handmade items, but the products are identical to cheap goods on Shein. The videos employ "empathy bait" to exploit viewers' racial and class solidarity. Researcher Jeremy Carrasco of Riddance.ai estimates his team finds up to 100 such accounts daily. The trend is described as "digital blackface" by communications researcher Cienna Davis of the University of Pennsylvania, rooted in historical blackface minstrelsy. The Verge found dozens of accounts with similar narratives, many created in the last two months. Aliyah's account alone has 40,000 followers. Celebrities like Gizelle Bryant from The Real Housewives of Potomac have fallen for the scams. The AI-generated videos use tools like Seedance 2.0, Midjourney, and OpenAI's Sora 2, with scripts copied from real influencers using ChatGPT and Gemini. Platforms have failed to moderate or label this content, and experts call for stronger AI detection and labeling.