Faux Influencers to Compete for Actual Cash in ‘AI Character of the 12 months’ Problem

OpenArt and Fanvue need to discover the world’s greatest AI character, and so they’re placing $90,000 on the desk to do it.

The AI Character of the 12 months 2026 is a four-week international problem, open now via April 19, the place creators design and launch unique AI influencers competing throughout 5 tracks: Entertainer, Life-style Influencer, Comic, Health, and Anime/Cartoon/Fantasy.

Weekly winners pocket $200 money and a platform shoutout, however there’s a a lot greater prize ready for the last word victor. The grand prize winner takes house $6,000 in money plus $2,000 in paid promotion, precedence placement on Fanvue, and enrollment in each organizers’ affiliate packages.

Monitor finalists take house prizes too, starting from $5,000 money and $1,000 in promotional publicity for the winner right down to $1,000 in money for the third-place finalist in every class. Fan-voted prizes—Most Viral Video and Viewers Selection—add $1,000 every to the pool. Add all of it up and the entire stretches previous $90,000.

To enter, you will need to construct your character on OpenArt, launch a public TikTok or Instagram account for it, publish at the least 4 instances throughout the problem window, and tag @OpenArt_AI, @Fanvue, and #AIPersonality2026. That’s easy sufficient on paper, however doubtless aggressive in observe, provided that ElevenLabs is the founding sponsor and the ambassador lineup consists of a few of the most-followed AI personalities on the web proper now.

The judging panel is 100% human—which is refreshing, for a change. When Miss AI ran its magnificence pageant in 2024, two of its 4 judges have been AI-generated influencers themselves. Right here, the 11-member panel features a 13-time Emmy-winning comedy author, a PR trade co-founder, and a advertising and marketing company government.

However “all human” does not imply these judges are simply spectators to this world. A number of of them constructed the digital personalities that persons are already following. Diana Núñez Morales, the architect behind Aitana—the Barcelona-based AI mannequin who earns as much as €10,000 a month in model offers and was itself a decide within the Miss AI 2024 pagant—is on the panel.

So is Cameron Wilson, creator of Shudu, well known because the world’s first digital supermodel; and Christopher “Topher” Townsend, who constructed Solomon Ray. The individuals scoring your entry created a few of the most profitable AI personalities in existence. They will know precisely what they’re .



The digital influencer market was valued at roughly $6 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit almost $46 billion by 2030. As Decrypt reported, AI companions and personas have grown so convincing that telling them other than actual people “typically feels not possible”—and that was over a 12 months in the past. They’ve solely gotten extra lifelike since then. At the moment, there are numerous Instagram accounts devoted to reveal influencers that go viral with out disclosing their AI nature.

OpenArt’s suite covers character creation, picture technology, video, and ElevenLabs-powered audio, multi functional place. Tutorials on methods to construct and monetize AI influencers are flooding YouTube, TikTok, and creator newsletters.

Judging standards for the competitors covers high quality, inspiration, model attraction, and social clout via a points-based system. It is not nearly how photorealistic your character appears—it is about whether or not the viewers really reveals up.

The problem kicked off Monday, with ultimate winners introduced in Could. The digital influencer economic system now has an official expertise search. The following Aitana would possibly already be queuing up their first publish.