AI Fuels Parasocial Celebrity Relationships

Since 2023, Generative AI has been used more frequently, with people using apps such as

ChatGPT to help them with school, work or hobbies.

But is it starting to get out of hand?

Tom Holland and Zendaya were rumoured to be married earlier this month, with stylist Law

Roach said to Entertainment Tonight, “The wedding already happened, y’all missed it.”

Fans were shocked and were curious to see the wedding photos because of how happy they

were with the news.

One Instagram account, @heroemaniaco, generated photos of Zendaya and Tom’s wedding,

which amassed more than 10 million likes from fans because of how realistic the photos were.

People then realised it was AI and were disappointed, but were also concerned because of how much AI was evolving and the number of people who believed the photos were real.

But is this okay? Should we be letting AI be so integrated into society that it's starting to warp our perceptions of reality?

Having tools like ChatGPT or even having tools like GrokAI integrated into our social media

platforms allow people to make false celebrity content and be more involved in their business.

Zendaya and Tom Holland did not want to share photos of their wedding, so would this be

classed as an invasion of their privacy?

Obviously, fans would want to congratulate the happy couple, but to an extent, generating photos is a lot.

The creator of the post said in an Instagram comment section: “The images are labelled as AI, and the caption clearly states that they are not real photographs.

“They are simply an artistic reaction to accompany an informative news story, since there are no official images of the wedding.”

Zendaya saw the photos and discussed them on Jimmy Kimmel. She said, “Babe, they’re AI.

They’re not real”.

She also jokingly showed a video of her wedding, taken from her newest film “The Drama”, but with Tom Holland’s face plastered on top of Robert Pattinson’s.

To conclude, AI may emphasise parasocial relationships and make it easier for fans to be more involved with celebrities' lives. So what are we going to do about it?

Written by, Hannah Gyabaah