AI-Driven Digital Personas and Their Implications for Human Rights, Trust, and Media Ethics in India

Abstract

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has brought forth a new generation of digital entities
in the form of AI-powered influencers, synthetic avatars, and machine-generated personalities
who shape Indian audiences’ understandings of authenticity, credibility, and human rights
within digital environments. While AI-generated personas—now actively participating in
brand communication, public discourse, and cultural storytelling—raise questions for our
consideration that are ethical, psychological, and social in nature, they do not possess lived
experience, emotional depth, and moral accountability like their human predecessors, yet they
are well capable of persuading opinions and influencing behaviours in large-scale amounts. That
is the paradox which challenges traditional understandings of representation and foundational
principles of human dignity, autonomy, and consent.
In this context, India’s multilingual digital media ecosystem, with its fast-growing youth
population and increasing reliance on visual storytelling, presents an important site to assess
these changes. While AI influencers offer creative opportunities to brands through cost
efficiency, risk-free engagement, and control over the content, they simultaneously introduce
concerns regarding manipulation, misinformation, and identity distortion. Too many viewers,
especially in semi-urban and rural regions, the failure to distinguish between real and synthetic
identity poses a threat to the right of viewers to transparent information; thus, AI-generated
content is directly linked to human rights.
The current study uses a sequential mixed-method design, integrating content analysis of
Indian AI-led campaigns with trust, authenticity, emotional reliability, and ethical awareness
measurements through surveys and interviews. Results indicate a growing tension between
technological fascination and ethical skepticism: despite audiences appreciating the innovation
behind AI personas, a significant portion indeed show uneasiness when they realize that
persuasive communication is delivered by a non-human entity. Lack of disclosure emerges
as a critical violation of digital autonomy, with audiences demanding clear identification of
AI-generated content as a matter of their right to truthful information.
These findings are interpreted in the context of representation theory, cultural production,
and human rights ethics. The research postulates that AI-driven digital identities are not an
entertaining tool but a powerful socio-cultural agent that redefines how identity, reality, and
trust are built in a digital context. Thus, it draws attention to the growing necessity of introducing
regulatory frameworks, compulsory transparency standards, and digital literacy as a means of
protecting user rights while ensuring that creative innovation is not hampered.
This paper situates virtual AI influencers within larger debates on digital ethics and human
rights and contends that the future of media must strike a balance between technological
advancement and ethical responsibility. The advent of AI-driven personas should not substitute
for human authenticity but rather evolve within a structured system respectful of human dignity,
protective of audience autonomy, and fostering responsible communication practices within
India’s increasingly digitized society