​A ROGUE AI, BUILT FOR A DIFFERENT INTERNET

​In 2023, an AI character was built to sell bath balls. The bath balls sold out. Then the audience did something the campaign hadn't planned for: they stopped asking about the product and started asking about the character.

​That character was Bruce Ryder. Miss Em, aka Emma Barbato, took the response seriously enough to give him a life of his own: a rogue AI loose in the metaverse who somehow lands in 1970s Gold Coast, mugshot and all. Bruce has since won Best AI Influencer at the Australian AI Festival, appeared in the first Generative AI edition of Lürzer's Archive, contributed to an academic paper through Deakin University's Motion Lab, and been recognised by the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

​From September 1, the show moves exclusively to GenFlix, a new Australian streaming platform built for AI-native cinema, as its flagship title.

​Miss Em calls the genre hyper-fiction: AI-native characters designed to live as interactive worlds, with audiences shaping what happens next.

​We'll cover:

• ​The real difference between an AI influencer built to mimic the creator economy and a hyper-fiction character built as its own medium.

• ​Why the current wave of AI influencers on social platforms is heading for a correction, and what's more durable underneath it.

• ​Why Bruce isn't built on mainstream social platforms, and what the move to GenFlix says about where interactive AI storytelling is actually going.

​For the marketers in the room: this is the case for building IP outside the feed.

​Come for Bruce, an AI with MA+ rating for extreme sarcasm. Stay for what his existence says about where interactive storytelling is actually headed.

​

​ABOUT LAST FRIDAY

​Last Friday is where curious minds gather. A few simple rules: good people bring good people, no selling, no pitching, no networking theatre.

GLITCH is Last Friday's open stage: how we share what the community's learning with anyone who's curious.