A 22-year-old medical student from northern India found an unlikely way to fund his education: building a fake online influencer using artificial intelligence, according to The Daily Beast and Wired. 

After struggling to earn money through more traditional side hustles like YouTube and selling study notes, he turned to generative AI tools to create “Emily Hart,” a fictional persona presented as a young, conservative American woman.

Using platforms like Google Gemini, he crafted everything from her appearance to her captions, positioning her as a pro-Christian, pro-gun, and anti-immigration personality designed to resonate with a specific audience.

The strategy worked quickly. By tailoring posts to a niche group—particularly conservative American men—the account began pulling in millions of views and rapidly growing followers.

“Every day I’d write something pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, anti-woke, and anti-immigration,” he said.

Within weeks, the persona was generating income through subscriptions, merchandise, and paid content on platforms like Fanvue, with the student reportedly earning thousands of dollars a month while spending less than an hour a day managing it.

The report says that he later admitted the shift to targeted political content was key, after generic “influencer” posts failed to gain traction.

Despite its success, the operation raised serious concerns about deception and the growing sophistication of AI-generated content. The accounts were eventually removed for violating platform rules, but not before demonstrating how easily realistic digital personas can attract attention—and money—online.

The student, who used a pseudonym to avoid jeopardizing his medical career, said the project was purely financial and has since stepped away to focus on his studies.

“If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” he wrote in one post. Maybe he should now add, "Oh, yeah. And because I'm completely made up."