A MAGA influencer has been unmasked as an AI-generated persona, created by a man in India who used it to scam money off men on the internet. The scammer claims Meta’s Instagram algorithm helped spread his content far and wide.
Emily Hart, a supposed MAGA influencer who gained millions of followers with patriotic content that included her posing in a bikini while ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, and shooting guns has been revealed as an AI contruct made by an Indian man, according to a report by Wired.
The AI-generated MAGA influencer was created by “Sam,” a 22-year-old Indian man who claims he is studying to become a surgeon. Sam told Wired that he made thousands of dollars through the scheme, and used the money toward putting himself through medical school.
Sam added that he got the idea to sell AI-generated images of a young conservative woman in a bikini while searching online for ways to make additional money. He is also trying to save up, with plans to to use the funds toward emigrating to the U.S. after graduation.
After making YouTube shorts and selling study notes to fellow med students, Sam came up with another idea after scrolling through his Instagram feed: generating an AI woman with Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro and selling bikini photos of her online.
Sam then turned to Google’s Gemini AI chatbot for advice. “If you create a generic ‘hot girl,’ you’re competing with a million other models,” Gemini told him, before suggesting he would have better luck selling photos of scantily clad women to the “MAGA/conservative niche,” which the chatbot referred to as a “cheat code,” according to a transcript obtained by Wired.
“The conservative audience (especially older men in the U.S.) often has higher disposable income and is more loyal,” Gemini reportedly said.
So the Indian med student created Emily Hart, a fake registered nurse with looks similar to actress Jennifer Lawrence.
On the Instagram account, @emily_hart.nurse, Sam posted salacious photos of his AI creation alongside captions like, “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” and “POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal.”
“Every day I’d write something pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-woke, and anti-immigration,” the 22-year-old man explained. And to Sam’s surprise, the grift “blew up,” with Emily Hart garnering 10,000 Instagram followers within a month.
“Every Reel I posted was getting 3 million views, 5 million views, 10 million views. The algorithm loved it.” he said. “I was spending maybe 30 to 50 minutes of my day, and I was making good money for a medical student.” “In India, even in professional jobs, you can’t make this amount of money,” Sam added. “I haven’t seen any easier way to make money online.”
Sam’s Instagram account for Emily Hart has since been taken down from the platform based on rules that prohibit users from posting AI-generated content unless it is clearly marked as such, Wired reported. In a statement to Breitbart News, a Meta spokesperson wrote, “We require people to use this disclosure and label tool when they post organic content with a photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so.”
The med student went on to reveal that he also made money from paid subscribers of similar content he posted to the OnlyFans competitor Fanvue — using the alternative platform because it allowed him to post AI-generated material. Sam said he used Grok AI to generate nude photos of Emily Hart, which he then uploaded to Fanvue.
“I was basically doing nothing,” he told Wired. “And it was just flooded with money.”
“The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people — like, super dumb people. And they fall for it,” he said, adding that he also created a liberal counterpart to Emily Hart, which failed to produce the same levels of revenue.
Despite his Emily Hart social media accounts being removed, Sam insists that he would have eventually stopped posting the AI-generated content.
“I don’t feel like I was scamming people,” Sam told Wired, adding that he has no regrets about his actions.
Wynton Hall’s instant bestseller, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, explores both the positive aspects of AI along with the negative impacts, whether it is the danger of young people having “relationships” with AI companions or how this new technology empowers scammers like Sam to take advantage of the American public.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
