Initially, we witnessed AI venturing into beauty contests, followed by its foray into music competitions. Now, the spotlight turns to the AI Personality of the Year award, marking a significant evolution in the burgeoning AI influencer industry, which is rapidly shifting from an amusing curiosity to a thriving business.

This competition is a collaborative effort by generative AI studio OpenArt and the AI-driven creator platform Fanvue, supported by AI voice technology company ElevenLabs. Kicking off on Monday and lasting a month, the event aims to honor the innovative minds “behind” AI influencers, acknowledging their increasing influence both commercially and culturally.

Participants will vie for a share of a $20,000 prize pool, to be distributed among an overall champion and winners in categories like fitness, lifestyle, comedy, music and dance, and fictional characters such as cartoons, anime, or fantasy figures. The winners will be celebrated in May at an event organizers are likening to the “Oscars” for AI personalities.

To participate, creators need to develop their AI influencer using OpenArt’s platform and submit it via www.AIpersonality.ai. Entrants are required to provide their social media accounts on platforms like TikTok, X, YouTube, and Instagram, alongside the narrative of their character, the inspiration behind its creation, and any brand collaborations.

The panel of judges includes Emmy-winning comedy writer Gil Rief, creators behind the Spanish AI model Aitana Lopez, and Christopher “Topher” Townsend, known for his AI-generated gospel singer Solomon Ray. As per a briefing seen by The Verge, contestants will be evaluated on four key criteria: quality, social influence, brand attractiveness, and the story behind the avatar. Judges will look at factors such as consistent engagement with followers, uniformity in appearance across social media, accuracy in details like the “correct number of fingers and thumbs,” and a genuine backstory for the avatar.

The competition welcomes both seasoned creators and newcomers. However, as Matt Jones, Fanvue’s head of brand, noted to The Verge, even established AI influencers must submit content developed on OpenArt’s platform.

Despite being designed to celebrate creators of virtual influencers, Jones said that entrants don’t need to publicly identify themselves. “If a person who created this amazing piece of work wants nothing to do with the press or to expose themselves or to have their name out there, that’s obviously fine,” he said. “There would be no need to thrust anybody into the limelight here. We would just celebrate the piece of work.”

That creators can remain anonymous feels odd for a contest judging authenticity, particularly in an AI influencer ecosystem built on fictional people, fake personas, and fabricated backstories. That same anonymity has also helped grifts flourish with little accountability, from the AI white nationalist rapper Danny Bones to MAGA fantasy girl Jessica Foster.

There’s familiar baggage too, including persistent questions about originality, whether AI-generated work, or even a likeness, has been lifted from real creators, and whether these tools simply reproduce the same old biases in synthetic form. Organizer Fanvue has already faced criticism for this in the past: in 2024, a Guardian columnist described its “Miss AI” beauty pageant as something that “take(s) every toxic gendered beauty norm and bundle(s) them up into a completely unrealistic package.”

To Fanvue’s Jones, creators inevitably leave something of themselves in the AI characters they make. “You can’t help but put a little bit of yourself into the stories that you tell and the characters that you make,” he said, urging creators to “lean into that.” The idea feels at home in the influencer economy: not strictly real, but a form of synthetic authenticity the internet already knows how to handle.