The rise of the synthetic star

THE LINE BETWEEN REAL AND RENDERED HAS VANISHED, AND THE INFLUENCER INDUSTRY MIGHT NEVER BE THE SAME

- GEETIKA SRIVASTAVA

NAINA APPEARS ON screen like any other young creator — flawless lighting, expressive eyes, a crafted life narrated through microdramas.

Only her 374,000 followers know the twist: Naina isn’t real. In one of her posts she writes, “It’s tough competing with someone who doesn’t forget lines, doesn’t need lunch breaks, and doesn’t get cancelled on X... (but) storytelling is big enough for humans and code to coexist.”

Until recently, avatars like her still carried the residue of artificiality. But tools like Google’s recently launched Nano Banana Pro have changed the physics of what “real” looks like online. The model’s latest update eliminates the telltale signs, such as the oddly smooth skin, the malformed lettering, the impossible shadows, ushering in imagery so precise that distinguishing synthetic from human has become a losing game.