These days, the line between reality and fantasy has never been more blurred. With the rise of AI particularly in terms of people, it comes as no surprise that Korean Air has made Rina the face of its new safety video. But she’s not real…
Rina Stars In New Korean Air Safety Video
As I scroll through my Instagram feed, I truly cannot tell anymore what is real and what is fake. We’ve moved beyond the airbrushing and apps that can give you washboard abs or a smaller nose to “people” that are not even real…virtual people created on a computer that look so real that you’d be hard-pressed to definitively claim they are fake.
Take Rina, who first appeared in 2021 and is a “virtual influencer” from South Korea. She looks about as real as I do (and far better looking):
Her mantra is “I can be anything I want to be.”
But she’s a virtual creation.
And yet she has tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and over 130K followers on TikTok (rather modest when it comes to counting followers on some AI-generated accounts).
And now she is the new face of Korean Air, starring in a new safety video just released:
Here’s how Korean Air describes Rina:
Rina is working as a virtual influencer and is growing into a Gen Z digital creator by gaining popularity through social media and short platform content. She also appears in famous brand advertisements.
Why Rina?
By introducing the new concept of virtual humans in its safety video, the airline seeks to reach out to its diverse customer base of all ages and cultural backgrounds. The sleek visual presentation is expected to garner passengers’ attention and increase viewers’ engagement levels.
The video takes place in the “Korean Air Safety Lounge” designed with airplane motives. The virtual space was created to make it easier to explain and understand the inflight safety rules. Rina, who gives safety instructions in the flight attendant uniform, is a virtual human who has completed safety training at Korean Air’s Cabin Crew Training Center and was appointed as an honorary flight attendant. MAVE members play the role of passengers following the safety instructions.
This will become a great example of the synergy created between the aviation industry and digital technology. We intend to change perceptions of inflight safety videos with these new ideas, and make them more relatable and engaging for passengers.
What a world in which a fake human is personified as real!
Like One Mile At A Time, who is a few years my junior, I feel way too old…
CONCLUSION
Rina, the new face of Korean Air, exists only in the virtual world. But she now stars in the new Korean Air safety video. What a world!
It reminds of that chilling line from the Christopher Nolan film Inception:
They come here every day to sleep?
No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality.
KE probably thought it be best to have an AI be the face after one of the members of the K-Pop Group used in the previous video was accused of taking advantage of fans. They even edited the video to minimize his appearance
Let’s see more .
Looks like a RealDoll.
I think we passed creepy a while ago on this. Barring some specific compelling reason, why go with AI instead of an actual person? I don’t want a cartoon to deal with.