How an Indian Med Student Made Millions of Dollars by Duping ‘Dumb MAGA Supporters’ With Fake ‘AI Slop’ Content

Key Points

College students are frequently looking for creative ways to make quick cash, either to fund their trivial activities or to save up for their future. For a 22-year-old medical student hailing from northern India, who has  aspirations to become an orthopedic surgeon and plans to move abroad after graduation, his need for a supplementary source of income stemmed from the latter. In a creative and novel attempt to raise funds, the student eared a ‘few thousand dollars a month’ by sitting at his home posting Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated content online. However did he do it?

The student named 'Sam', who goes by this pseudonym to conceal his identity online so as to not jeopardize his career and his (hopeful) status as future immigrant, spoke to American magazine WIRED about his 'side hustle.'

Having to spend of his parents-alloted on subsidizing his medical exams, Sam needed a way to make additional cash to fund his dreams of studying abroad. Earlier legitimate attempts— such as posting YouTube shorts and selling notes to fellow students— didn't turn out to be quite as profitable. Even posting AI-imageries of girls dressed suggestively wasn't performing as well as he hoped it would.

That's when Sam turned to Gemini AI for advice. The chatbot said to him that “if you create a generic ‘hot girl,’ you’re competing with a million other models.” To help Sam’s AI-content stand out more in the already saturated market, he presented Gemini with a possible option, out of which it picked one in particular: the MAGA/conservative niche.

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'MAGA' stands for the "Make America Great Again" movement slash political slogan popularized by Donald Trump during his presidential campaigns. Advocating for nativist ideologies, it represents a right-wing, populist political movement centered on nationalism, protectionism, anti-immigration sentiments, and "America First" policies.

Calling it a ‘cheat code,’ the Gemini advised that older generations of MAGA-supporters in the US often have ‘disposable income and are more loyal’ which could be more profitable.  

That's how Emily Hart, an AI-generated white, blonde, blue-eyed influencer, who would post pro-MAGA and conservative content, often with a background of her dressed skimpily, was made. According to her profile, she was a registered nurse with Jennifer Lawrence looks who offered suggestive content to lonely conservative men online. Using Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro tool, Sam would create and post pictures of Emily drinking beer, ice-fishing, and shooting rounds at a rifle range, with emoji-filled captions promoting and conforming with MAGA ideologies. 

Talking to WIRED, Sam said: “Every day I’d write something pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-woke, and anti-immigration.” 

One post showed Emily firing a rifle with the caption: “If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported,” and “POV: You were assigned intelligence at birth, but you identify as liberal.” 

Sam added that young MAGA women are “more attention-grabbing” since most women aged 18 to 29 lean towards liberal ideologies. Despite MAGA fans making him rich, he still looks down on them, calling them “super-dumb” for falling for this ‘obvious AI slop.’

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He said he also attempted to make a liberal counterpart for Hart on Instagram, but “Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much,” he said. “The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people — like, super-dumb people. And they fall for it,” Sam said.

Even though Sam was skeptical at first, his online AI farce blew up quickly and racked up millions of views. Emily's Instagram handle gained 10,000 followers within a month. with many subscribing to the AI-model’s Fanvue account (an OnlyFans competitor that permits AI-generated content). Sam used Grok AI to generate nude photos of Hart and uploaded them to Fanvue, where fans sent him money for exclusive content and messages.

Sam estimates he was making a few thousand dollars a month. “I was spending maybe 30 to 50 minutes of my day, and I was making good money for a medical student,” he says. “In India, even in professional jobs, you can't make this amount of money. I haven’t seen any easier way to make money online.”

However, after a month, the Emily Hart instagram account was banned owing to ‘suspicious activities’. While the facebook account of the ai-model is still operational, Sam says that his side hustle has since stopped as he is shifting his attention towards his studies.

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