AI Avatars Push $40 Dropship Goods on TikTok, Exploiting Black Identity and Empathy
Updated
Updated · The Verge · May 30
AI Avatars Push $40 Dropship Goods on TikTok, Exploiting Black Identity and Empathy
1 articles · Updated · The Verge · May 30
Dozens of TikTok, Instagram and Facebook accounts are using AI-generated personas to sell mass-produced goods, including a belt buckle pitched for $40 that also appears on Shein for about $9.
Jeremy Carrasco of Riddance.ai said his team is finding up to 100 such e-commerce accounts a day, many built around nearly identical scripts about marginalized small-business owners struggling to survive.
One fake persona, Aliyah, drew 40,000 followers; her top video logged 6.5 million views, 814,000 likes and nearly 30,000 comments from users trying to boost what they thought was a real Black-owned business.
Researchers Cienna Davis and Tempest M. Henning said the tactic amounts to digital blackface, using caricatured Black identity and narratives of racial or working-class struggle to extract sales and performative solidarity.
Experts said short-form platforms are amplifying the scam because AI clips are cheap to mass-produce, hard for untrained users to spot, and still weakly labeled or moderated.
If AI can create a fake business that fools celebrities, what stops it from creating fake social movements?
With AI fraud outpacing legal safeguards, are social media platforms becoming ungovernable marketplaces for scams?
When AI can perfectly fake human struggle for profit, how can we ever trust our own empathy online again?
AI Avatars Dominate Social Media (71% of Images): Impacts on Commerce, Black Creators, and Digital Trust
Overview
The digital landscape is undergoing a major transformation as AI-generated avatars rapidly proliferate, fundamentally changing how content is created, shared, and commercialized on social media. By July 2025, 71% of images on social platforms are AI-generated, and many of the fastest-growing YouTube channels focus entirely on AI content. This shift is powered by advanced 3D modeling and sophisticated technology, making digital humans more lifelike than ever. As a result, the market for digital humans is set to grow dramatically, reaching up to $440.3 billion by the early 2030s, signaling a new era for online engagement and commerce.