RING girls could soon be in a fight for their livelihood – thanks to AI.
Ring card girls have been part and parcel of boxing for several decades.
In recent years, glam influencers have joined the hoards of models strutting their stuff around the ring.
But they could soon be embroiled in a fight with their AI counterparts, who have been tipped to gatecrash the party by the creator of Lily Hayes – the most prominent AI influencer on Instagram.
Hayes’ creator told The Daily Star: “Technology is moving so fast and sports organisations, who are inherently innovative, are beginning to embrace AI Influencers.
“Lily has built an incredible fanbase over the past 12 months, and boxing is a really exciting opportunity for her to break into the mainstream.
“Ring Girls have always been a massive part of boxing, but the interesting thing about AI Influencers becoming Ring Girls is fans can actually connect with them online, 24/7, and in multiple languages in the lead up to, during, and after the event.
“There’s some big fights touted for 2025, including Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua at Wembley or in Riyadh so we’d love to get Lily on that card.”
Hayes can generate £20,000 a month on Fanvue interacting with her followers, despite not being a real person.
A Fanvue spokesperson said: “Fanvue is the platform AI Influencers join to build massive fanbases and monetise their content online.
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“It can help kickstart their digital careers and quickly open up opportunities with brands and organisations who are looking to innovate with AI Influencers and connect with fans.
“Appealing to Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha is the next big challenge for sporting events and marketers more broadly – and AI Influencers are essentially a new marketing channel for them to be able do that.
“We’ve recently seen the exciting possibilities of AI Influencers in F1, with Aston Martin creating an AI clone of Fernando Alonso to reach new demographics of fans – and we’re predicting a lot more of this type of innovation in sport in 2025.”
Artificial intelligence, of course, has already made its way into the world of boxing.
An AI judge was introduced for the first time earlier this month ahead of Tyson Fury‘s do-or-die rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
The three ringside human judges scored the contest 116-112 in favour of defending unified heavyweight champion Usyk.
But the AI judge scored the fighter even wider in Usyk’s favour, turning in a scorecard of 118-112.
Fury fumed at the judges’ scorecards in the ring, which he STORMED OUT OF after briefly looking at them.
Ad he went on an expletive-filled rant after learning the AI judge only gave him two rounds of the Riyadh rematch.
He said: ” F**k all computers, keep humans. More jobs for human, less jobs for computers.
“[And] f**k electric cars too!”
