The Verge investigation found dozens of TikTok accounts using AI-generated avatars, often portraying Black women small business owners, to dropship cheap mass-produced products from Shein and others at huge markups, with the AI personas crying on camera and pleading for support to drive engagement. One account, “Aliyahsbuckles,” sells belt buckles for around $40 that are available on Shein for a quarter of the price, with its most popular video racking up 6.5 million views from users trying to support what they thought was a real Black-owned business. Jeremy Carrasco of AI video detection org Riddance.ai said his team finds up to 100 such accounts per day, many also active on Instagram and Facebook. Researchers called the trend a form of “digital blackface” and “empathy bait,” with the same scripts replicated across avatars of different races to fit whichever demographic the algorithm targets.
