A16Z-Backed Startup Sells 'Synthetic Influencers' to Manipulate Social Media
6 months ago
- #AI
- #Social Media
- #Startup
- Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), is developing an AI-powered bot service for bulk content creation and deployment on social media.
- The service mimics human interaction to bypass social media algorithms, using AI to generate accounts and posts with minimal human intervention.
- Doublespeed employs 'phone farms' to run AI-generated accounts on TikTok, with one client achieving 4.7 million views in under four weeks using just 15 accounts.
- The platform allows clients to create variations of the same content to avoid suppression, with pricing ranging from $1,500 to $7,500 per month for generating up to 3,000 posts.
- Doublespeed's dashboard enables users to create videos and carousels, with themes like 'Girls Selfcare' and 'Christian Truths/Advice'.
- The company 'warms up' accounts on iOS and Android to appear legitimate, and currently targets TikTok, with plans for Instagram and Reddit.
- Doublespeed's practices violate the terms of service of platforms like Reddit, TikTok, Meta, and X, and it has raised $1 million from a16z's 'Speedrun' accelerator program.
- Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and a Meta board member, is involved, raising questions about Meta's stance on the startup's policy violations.
- Doublespeed's service resembles existing AI content generation tools but stands out due to its backing by a major VC firm and its blatant approach to social media manipulation.