QAA Podcast - Meet The AI Influencers Grifting Your Parents feat. Ej Dickson (Premium E345) Sample

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

Are those “small business owners” selling trinkets on Tik Tok actually real? Are those ripped gay hunks on Twitter just AI? Do people even care about the distinction between “fake” and “real” in the content they see online? In this episode we dive into the various ways people are deploying AI entities on social media: from the scammy, to the benign, to the sadistic and abusive. Travis unpacks the recent controversy over an Australian influencer who was caught using AI to promote her dubious charity as well the strange trend of videos of fake belt buckle makers. Later the boys are joined by Ej Dickson, senior culture writer at WIRED and author of One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate. Dickson shares the perspective she’s gained on reporting on influencer culture, parasocial relationships, and AI manipulation. Along the way the crew ponders whether humanity will actually have to lose a war to AI in order to get plugged into an illusory Matrix-like world or if people will walk into it willingly so long as they can interact with their favorite synthetic influencers. EJ Dickson on Twitter https://x.com/ejdickson?s=20 EJ Dickson on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/ejdickson.bsky.social One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate By Ej Dickson https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/One-Bad-Mother/Ej-Dickson/9781668051115 SOURCES This Scammer Used an AI-Generated MAGA Girl to Grift ‘Super Dumb’ Men https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/ Australian influencer Lily Jay’s tangled web of AI manipulation https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-05/lily-jay-foundation-posts-ai-generated-misleading-videos/106866422 AI grifters are creating fake Black people to sell Shein junk https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/938844/ai-tiktok-shop-blackface-shein-dropshipping Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes: www.patreon.com/qaa Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media! All episodes of Spectral Voyager Season 2 are out now! Binge the entirety of Truly Tradly Deeply by Annie Kelly and Megan Kelly as well as Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: cursedmedia.net Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Jake Rockatansky. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com) qaapodcast.com QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

Okay, now we're recording. I don't know. That was so weird. How low can I go? His file path way, way, way, way, way, way, way. Well, that answers that question. Well, we got to the bottom of that one. I'm always trying to push my body to the new limits.

What tricks can I work? Your pipes. Fucking hell, my connection's all fucked up. Why breaking up for you guys? Yeah, kind of. God damn it. This is what our show would sound like if we didn't like decide to write every episode out. Yeah.

People still can't believe that when I tell it to them. They're like, so what is it? They're like, tell me, like, what's your process like? And I'm like, well, first, like, you know, we find something we're interested in and then somebody or, you know, a handful of people will tackle the script. And it's like, you know, anywhere from like 15 to 30 pages. Like, and they were like, what? Yeah, you know, I feel like podcasting is still.

such an immature medium, that the act of planning ahead and giving a shit about the quality just sets you apart from the pack. Yeah, that's funny. It reminds me of this time I was at a bar a while back with a friend and was talking to the guy next to me, and he asked me what I do. And so I was trying to explain the pod. This was before the rebrand. So I had to do the dance of like, we cover Q&on, but we're not pro Q&O.

So I think he figured out that we were not conservatives like he was because then he started asking me about the process of making an episode and what goes into it. And so I was telling him that, like, a host, chooses a topic and then writes a script so that they can present it to the others and so that they can comment. And all he heard was script. And so he was immediately interrogating me just saying, oh, so it's scripted. Like it's not even real. Like you're just making it up.

Oh, my Lord. Yeah. So then, yeah, no matter what I said after that, I couldn't convince him we weren't just making shit up every time we started recording. That's so awesome. Yeah. He was like, so it is scripted. You know what? That guy's probably going around.

He's like, I met a boy. And he worked for one of them liberal podcasts. And I'll tell you something. note he told me. They write everything. It's all scripted. It's all scripted. They think about it ahead of time.

It's not off the dome. They don't believe in anything. They write the script out before they, before they even, before they even get on the air, before they hit live, before they hit the live button and record the podcast, you know? Can't believe it, man. I listen to, like, imagine listening to like, yeah, like four-hour interviews where the guys are like, uh, uh, Jamie, pull that up and like, think like, man. It would suck if this was a bit script. Even when they are scripted, they include so much of the bullshit in between stuff that's boring. Tell me about it.

I don't listen to any podcast. Hours and hours of recording. Yeah, yeah. They're like four hour episodes. Oh, man, this should be like really beefy. But it's like half content and half them kind of like dittling around. And it's like, it's just shit. They're like, I don't know, man.

Like kind of fucking weird. Like maybe, you know, they use a lot of like crash and burn phrases like pretty sure. Like, hey, I'm pretty sure. Sure. Pretty. Endless speculation. Like crash and burn phrase. Also, we've been recording this whole time. I know we have. I think we should include this. Let's start going.

Crash and burn phrases, it's like people who don't naturally have a sense of humor, they've picked up a couple phrases from like Judd Apatow movies or like Ted. Yeah, so that happened. Yeah, yeah, that kind of like. Millennial cringe. Yeah, I guess that's what younger people call it now. But it's like nailed it. You know, it's like nailed it.

It is millennial cringe. And they are calling us that. Well, I don't use any of those phrases. I call those crash and burns. Like madlibs, like madlips for people who just, like, aren't funny. Yeah, Gen Z and the Alpha, they're celebrating Jake for never being cringe. Oh, no. I know that because you say that, I know that that means actually the opposite and that I have done something cringe.

Listen, dude, you either live old enough to see yourself get cringe or die young. I think I've always been cringe. Yeah. I don't know if I've all, like, necessarily associated that with you. Cringe? Cringe? I think it is. I guess that's, that, you mean, you have made like an album for your dog.

I guess I can't deny that that would be. We need to get through this. We got, we're interviewing E.J. Dixon 55 minutes. Okay, okay. Now, for real, for real, we'll start the episode. Let's do the clap then. Okay. Three, two, one.

If you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast Premium Episode 345. Meet the AI influencers, grifting your parents, featuring E.J. Dixon. As always, we are your host, Jake Rakitansky, Julian Field, and Travis View. On Instagram, there's an account called Chloe. Clark. The header photo appears to depict a young woman displaying a massive wedding ring on her finger. The profile says sharing wedding tips and ideas and Once's app ambassador. Once is a photo sharing app that

supposedly allows guests at an event to take photos from their phone, which are then uploaded to a shared film role. It's normal for people to monetize their social media presence by advertising mobile apps, but if you browse through Chloe's Instagram reels, you might sense something is off. One photo shows Chloe inside an opulent venue dressed in the wedding gown wiping away a tear before smiling at her handsome groom with the caption, P.O.V. You didn't listen to your friends who said no phones at weddings, which of course leads to a pitch to the app. But if you scroll to another video, it's the same scene in a different setting. Bride wipes away her tears, smiles at the groom, pitch for the app. But now it's outdoors. Scroll again. Same scene by a different angle. And if you scroll back far enough,

oh my God, she's changed race. Different bride. Oh, no. He's been marrying people across him. Yeah, it's a different bride. Same groom, same scene. Wipe away tears. Look lovingly at groom. Seems like this app can just get you a lot of wives. Yeah, this guy's been wiping up women across the globe.

He's been wiping up tears. He's been wiping up his wives' tears all over the world. He carries with him a cape full of tears, heavy with tears. Listen, all she does is cry, let's be honest. But she is very handsome. Chloe Clark is an AI entity, and the person running this account just used the same or a similar prompt in an AI video generator to produce dozens of videos to advertise the app. Now, this is one of a growing number of examples of how AI can be used to mimic traditional online influencers. Today we'll be talking about a few other examples, including a real influencer who used AI trickery to promote a dubious charity and a drop shipper who used dozens of AI entities to sell overpriced junk.

Later in the episode, we'll also speak to Wired reporter E.J. Dixon, who has done a lot of great reporting on AI, including on how a man in northern India created a blonde conservative AI influencer that attracted a large audience of MAGAMEN. Oh, oh, she's mine. Oh, oh, get on the way. That's how I imagine. The large audience. They're like, Larry, at some ladies calling for you on the phone, he's like, oh, oh, oh, oh, for me. And he puts the phone to his ear and it's like, beep, boy. Beep, bo, beep, beep, beep, because it's not fucking real.

Because it's not real. Do you think that's how people in AI videos talk? I mean, like, have you heard the whole? That's, that, I think we actually clipped it on, on this show where the two AI, like, agents basically realize they're talking to each other. And they're like, ah, shall we speak, shall we switch to the mother language? It's like, ah! And then they just start talking and, like, dial up sounds. Working on this episode got me thinking a lot about the role of authenticity.

in one's online presence, because everyone who posts a lot on social media engages in some degree of filtering and performance. Lifestyle influencers might share all the intimate details of their romantic family and financial life, but hide away from discussing their thoughts about politics and religion, to, you know, not alienate certain audiences. Political influencers can bear all of their thoughts regarding about how, you know, society should be ordered and power should be used, but say nothing about their personal lives. But it's understood that this selective presentation doesn't rise to the level of deceit. And everyone who makes content takes advantage of some digital enhancement.

Writers at minimum use spelling and grammar checkers. Streamers use beauty filters to smooth out imperfections. And podcasters use plugins to make their voices sound more pleasant. People often praise Jake's voice, but you may be surprised to learn that he sounds like he's gargling nails before Corey works as magic in editing. Yeah, actually, when I talk sound more like this. Whoa, whoa, with a filter back on, please, Corey. Did you change it back?

Yeah. God, thank God. It's impossible to hear his original voice. It's horrible. Almost like crank-esque. It's terrible. You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA podcast. For access to the full episode, as well as all past premium episodes and all of our podcast miniseries,

go to patreon.com slash QAA. Travis, why is that such a good deal? Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA podcast for just $5 per month. For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries. That includes 10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie. 10 episodes of Perverts with Julian and Liv. 10 episodes of the Spectral Voyager with Jake and Brad, plus 20 episodes of Trickledown with me, Travis Vue. It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.

Travis, for once, I agree with you. And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA. Well, that's not an opinion. It's a fact. You're so right, Jake. We love and appreciate all of our listeners. Yes, we do. And Travis is actually crying right now, I think, out of gratitude maybe? That's not true. The part about be crying, not me being grateful. I'm very grateful.