A MAGA influencer who amassed millions of Instagram followers has been exposed as an Indian man who graduated from medical school. "Sam," a 22-year-old orthopedic surgeon in training, told WIRED that the idea to sell AI-generated images of a young woman in a bikini came to him while he was looking for money and trying to save enough to emigrate to the US after graduation.
He turned to Google's Gemini AI for advice and decided to create an "attractive girl" specifically tailored to the "MAGA/conservative" movement, after the software told him that "conservative audiences (especially older men in the US) often have higher disposable income and are more loyal," according to WIRED.
According to her profile, she was a registered nurse with the looks of Jennifer Lawrence, offering provocative posts to lonely conservative men online. One post showed her shooting a rifle with the caption: "If you want a reason not to follow anymore: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegal immigrants should be deported."
Sam told the magazine: "Every day I wrote something pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-immigration." The account "blew up," and Emily Hart had 10,000 followers within a month. Every video he posted garnered millions of views and brought him more followers.
He then capitalized on the allure of the AI model by selling MAGA-themed t-shirts and creating an account on OnlyFans competitor Fanvue, where paid subscribers could access inappropriate AI-generated content. Fanvue has differentiated itself from OnlyFans by allowing AI-generated content on its platform. This move made him a huge success, and Sam was soon earning thousands of dollars a month.