First it was AI beauty pageants. Then AI music contests. Now the next act in the AI influencer circus has arrived: an award for AI Personality of the Year. This feels like the logical next step as virtual influencers move from novelty to a real business with money attached.

Who is running this and what is at stake

The contest is a joint effort from generative AI studio OpenArt and creator platform Fanvue, with support from AI voice company ElevenLabs. It opens on Monday and will run for one month. The total prize pot is $20,000, which will be split between an overall winner and several category winners.

Categories

  • Fitness
  • Lifestyle
  • Comedian
  • Music and dance entertainer
  • Fictional cartoon, anime, or fantasy personality

Winners will be announced at an event in May that organizers have nicknamed the "Oscars for AI personalities."

How to enter

Entrants must build their AI influencer using OpenArt's platform and submit their entry through the competition website. The application asks for social media handles across TikTok, X, YouTube, and Instagram, the character's backstory, the creator's motivations, and any brand partnerships the avatar has done.

Who will judge the entries

The judging panel includes some notable names: comedy writer Gil Rief, who has won multiple Emmy awards; the team behind Spanish AI model Aitana Lopez; and musician Christopher "Topher" Townsend, known for the AI project that produced the synthetic gospel singer Solomon Ray.

Scoring criteria

According to a judges' briefing reported by a tech publication, entries will be scored on four main areas:

  • Quality - how polished and well executed the work is
  • Social clout - follower engagement and reach
  • Brand appeal - suitability for partnerships
  • Inspiration - the story and motivation behind the avatar

Judges will also check specifics like consistent visual identity across channels, reliable engagement with followers, and even technical details such as correct anatomy like the "right number of fingers and thumbs."

Anonymity, clarification, and the discomfort around it

Fanvue's head of brand, Matt Jones, initially said creators do not need to make themselves public and that the contest can celebrate the piece of work without pushing the creator into the spotlight. That sounded appealing to anyone who wants credit without publicity.

But the organizers later clarified that all entrants must share their personal details as part of the application process, and that offensive AI influencers or offensive content would not meet the entry rules. That clarification came from a PR representative working with Fanvue.

The back-and-forth on anonymity matters because the AI influencer space already has examples of bad actors who used anonymity to avoid accountability. High-profile cases include an AI-generated white nationalist rapper and other politically charged fictional personas that spread misinformation or extreme viewpoints.

Other concerns

Critics have also raised broader issues about originality and bias. Questions linger about whether AI-created avatars borrow looks, voices, or styles from real people without permission, and whether the tools simply reproduce existing social biases in synthetic form.

Fanvue is no stranger to criticism. A past AI pageant organized by the platform was called out by a columnist for promoting unrealistic and gendered beauty norms.

What the organizers say

Matt Jones argues that creators inevitably put pieces of themselves into the characters they make, and he encourages entrants to lean into that personal influence. That idea positions AI personalities as a kind of crafted authenticity, part fiction and part human input.

Update, March 23: The story has been updated to clarify how anonymity requests will be handled and to note that personal details are required for entry.