Monk with 2.5m followers who doesn’t exist’: How AI influencers are being built, scaled, monetised

A monk sits in silence, offering bite-sized wisdom to millions on Instagram. His words, along with that calm wind chime sound in the background, makes many of his 2.5 million followers pause, reflect and return for more. There is just one catch: he does not exist. A viral post by Jack Brewster, journalist and CEO of news app Newsreel, has exposed the rise of eerily lifelike AI influencers such as Yang Mun. The AI monk is a serene online figure built entirely from algorithms capable of drawing real devotion and real money.