In certain corners of the internet, on niche news feeds and algorithms, an AI-generated British schoolgirl has emerged as something of a cultural phenomenon.
Her name is Amelia, a purple-haired “goth girl” who proudly carries a mini union flag everywhere she goes and appears to have a penchant for racism.
If you are unfamiliar with Amelia, the chances are you will soon encounter one viral meme or another inspired by her on Facebook or X, where her reputation is growing.
Videos of Amelia typically feature her walking through London, or the House of Commons, declaring her love for England and warning of the dangers of “militant Muslims” or “third-world migrants”. In one clip she is harangued by bearded man in Islamic attire for eating a pork sausage.
The message is one well rehearsed on far-right social media, but it is the AI invention of Amelia that has made her endlessly adaptable, creating a viral internet trend that anyone with access to a mainstream chatbot can take part in. Users of X have turned to its Grok AI tool to create so many Amelia memes, she is now breaking out of niche online silos.
The origins of the character are ironic, to say they least. An early iteration of Amelia began life in a counter-extremism video game funded by the UK Home Office and created to deter young people aged 13-18 from being attracted to far right extremism in Yorkshire.
Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”.
Certain choices result in a referral under the British government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme.
However, it is a subversion of the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels in a way that has astonished even the creators of the original game.
Among the plethora of increasingly sophisticated AI-generated iterations are a Manga-style Amelia, a Wallace and Gromit version and AI-generated “real life” encounters between her and the characters of Father Ted or Harry Potter, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging.
Analysis provided to the Guardian by Logically, a UK company that monitors disinformation, indicated that an anonymous account known for skilfully disseminating far-right messaging started the Amelia meme on X on 9 January with a post that has since been viewed 1.4m times.
The volume of “Ameliaposting” has since gone from an average of 500 a day when that account first introduced it to the world to roughly 10,000, starting on 15 January as it hit international audiences. On Wednesday, it hit 11,137 posts on X alone.
In one of the most surreal twists, an…
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