Rise of AI ‘bikini interviews’ shows how misogyny is monetised on social media

SCMP | Sept. 1, 2025, noon | Original
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The trend is exacerbating a broader issue of ‘AI slop’, which blurs the line between fiction and reality, gradually eroding trust in visual content

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This photo illustration taken in Washington, in July, shows images on the internet and social media of AI bikini-clad women conducting street interviews. Photo: AFP

The videos are strikingly lifelike, featuring bikini-clad women conducting street interviews and eliciting lewd comments – but they are entirely fake, generated by AI tools increasingly used to flood social media with sexist content.

Such AI slop – mass-produced content created by cheap artificial intelligence tools that turn simple text prompts into hyperrealistic visuals – is frequently drowning out authentic posts and blurring the line between fiction and reality.

The trend has spawned a cottage industry of AI influencers churning out large volumes of sexualised clips with minimal effort, often driven by platform incentive programmes that financially reward viral content.

Hordes of AI clips, laden with locker room humour, purport to show scantily clad female interviewers on the streets of India or the United Kingdom – sparking concern about the harm such synthetic content may pose to women.
Agence France-Presse’s fact-checkers traced hundreds of such videos on Instagram , many in Hindi, that purportedly show male interviewees casually delivering misogynistic punchlines and sexualised remarks – sometimes even grabbing the women – while crowds of men gawk or laugh in the background.

Many videos racked up tens of millions of views, and some further monetised that traction by promoting an adult chat app to “make new female friends”.

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