Digital Marilyn, an interactive AI avatar of Marilyn Monroe that was created using GPT-3.5 by Soul Machines and Authentic Brands Group, was unveiled at SXSW
One of Marilyn Monroe's most famous quotes was, “I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.”
Context & Ripple Effects
Soul Machines had already positioned its technology around customer-facing digital avatars for brands including Google, Sony and Mercedes-Benz through its earlier enterprise-avatar work. Digital Marilyn extends that capability into a licensed celebrity identity, with Authentic Brands Group as the rights-holder partner.
The project arrives amid experiments in paid conversational replicas, including a GPT-4-powered influencer chatbot. It matters because it combines a recognizable deceased public figure, a commercial rights owner and an interactive AI interface in one product.
First-order effects
- Soul Machines and Authentic Brands Group gain a public demonstration of a licensed, conversational celebrity-avatar format; Marilyn Monroe’s likeness becomes an interactive digital property rather than solely a static media asset.
- SXSW attendees and prospective brand partners can evaluate Soul Machines’ avatar technology in a high-recognition entertainment use case.
Second-order effects
- Rights-holders for celebrity and entertainment estates gain a clearer reference point for licensing interactive AI experiences, while avatar providers have an incentive to pursue similar partnerships.
- The launch raises the competitive bar for realism and expressiveness in AI avatars, an issue already associated with more human-like synthetic presenters and their consequences.
Third-order effects
- If licensed interactive personas become repeatable products, celebrity-IP commercialization may shift from one-off uses of likeness toward continuously available conversational services.
- That shift would intensify questions around consent, representation and commercial use of deceased people’s identities, concerns later associated with AI avatars of the deceased.
The trend: Licensed identity holders are testing conversational AI avatars as a new channel for commercializing recognizable personas, alongside growing pressure for governance of anthropomorphic systems.