Responsible Lab Episode 4: The Economics and AI of Influencers

How economics and AI help influencers: The good, the bad and the theory

A 2019 survey asked young people in the United States what they wanted to be when they grew up. The answer: 3x want to be influencers over astronauts. There are even calls from the venture capital sector to center such solopreneurs in US policy. In Canada, some leading Public Relations (PR) organizations tend to focus much of their efforts on influencers, and there is even a dedicated space for influencers in Toronto to create content.

There are signs that this is global. Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, affordably-subsidized smartphones may have been something of a mechanism. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had a recent report on influencers across much of Africa. The industry is only about a decade old, but these appear to mostly hail from Anglophone relative to Francophone nations, and (somewhat predictably) correlate with internet access statistics.

Influence and economics

For the economics profession, the most interesting environment …