20대 유튜버들이 AI로 생성된 가짜 의사와 흑인 인플루언서를 내세워, FDA가 회수 조치한 영양제를 주로 노년층에게 판매하는 악질적인 마케팅을 벌인 사실이 법적 소송으로 드러났습니다. 이들은 드롭시핑과 정보 상품 판매에 쓰이던 '빠른 부자 되기' 스팸 전략을 그대로 가져와 규제가 느슨한 건강 기능식품 시장과 틱톡 쇼핑에 결합했습니다. 이 사건은 AI 생성 콘텐츠가 어떻게 대규모 허위 광고와 소비자 기만에 악용될 수 있는지 보여주는 중요한 사례입니다.
번역된 본문
지난 2월, 해리 창(Harry Chang)이라는 뉴질랜드 콘텐츠 크리에이터가 "이 AI 틱톡 쇼핑 영상이 나에게 67,420달러(약 9천만 원)를 벌어주었습니다(방법 공개)"라는 제목의 유튜브 영상을 게시했습니다. 해당 영상에서 창과 또 다른 유튜버 지미 팔리(Jimmy Farley)는 로사벨라(Rosabella)라는 영양제 회사를 위해 바이럴 마케팅 영상을 어떻게 제작했는지 설명했습니다. 이 영상의 제목은 "간 청소를 위한 나이지리아의 비밀!!"이었습니다. 창은 'liverboosthub11'이라는 계정이 게시한 영상의 대본을 복사해서 붙여넣은 뒤, 자신이 마케팅하는 영양제가 "미국 사람들은 잘 모르지만 아시아나 아프리카에서 오랫동안 사용된 비법"인 것처럼 꾸미기 위해 대본을 살짝 수정했다고 설명했습니다.
구글의 비디오 생성 AI 'VEO 3'에서 그는 영상 전경에 외과용 마스크를 쓴 AI로 생성된 흑인 여성을 등장시키고, 무대 위에 서서 분홍색 드레스를 입은 또 다른 AI 생성 흑인 여성(HeyGen이라는 도구로 제작)을 가리키게 했습니다. 그는 전경에 있는 여성이 '강한 아프리카계 미국인 억양'으로 말하도록 지시했습니다. "도대체 왜 아무도 저 여자가 한 말에 대해 이야기하지 않는 거야?! 뱃살 고민이 있다면 이거 꼭 봐!"라고 말이죠. 창은 자신이 만든 작품에 대해 "호기심과 흥미를 유발한다"며 "사람들은 '씨, 그 여자가 뭐라고 했어? 정확히 뭐라고 말했어?'라고 알고 싶어 한다"고 설명했습니다.
무대 위의 AI 여성이 liverboosthub11의 대본을 읽게 하기 위해 그는 인기 AI 음성 생성기인 일레븐랩스(ElevenLabs)를 사용했습니다. 그는 '흑인 여성 오가닉', '흑인 남성 1', '오가닉 남부 백인 여성', '차 안에 있는 슬픈 흑인 여성' 등 자신이 만들어둔 음성 목록을 스크롤하여 '라티샤 1(Latisha 1)'이라는 목소리를 최종 선택했습니다. 그런 다음 캡컷(CapCut)이라는 영상 편집 소프트웨어에서 이 음성과 AI 영상을 동기화했습니다. 이렇게 완성된 AI 영상은 틱톡에서 130만 회의 조회수를 기록했고, 제휴 마케팅(어필리에이트) 판매 수수료로만 수만 달러를 벌어들인 것으로 보입니다.
다른 영상에서 창은 자신이 AI 인플루언서를 이용해 어떻게 수만 달러를 벌었는지 설명합니다. "제 의뢰인들은 제가 그들의 제품을 너무 많이 팔아치운 덕분에 저에게 롤렉스 시계를 사주기도 했습니다." 그가 게시한 영상의 제목은 "AI 인플루언서로 매월 51,000달러(약 7천만 원)의 수익을 복사하기 (불법 같은 느낌이 들 정도죠)"였습니다.
하지만 새로운 소송은 이러한 전략이 실제로 불법이라고 주장합니다. (매체 404 Media가 이 기사에 대한 코멘트를 요청한 직후, 기사에 언급된 유튜브 영상 중 상당수가 삭제되었습니다.)
2월에 영양제 회사인 휴만(Humann)은 경쟁사인 암브로지아 브랜즈(Ambrosia Brands)를 고소했습니다. 암브로지아가 영양제 회사 로사벨라(Rosabella)를 통해 AI로 생성된 가짜 '의사'들이 등장해 로사벨라 제품의 효능을 과장하는 수백 개의 틱톡 쇼핑 영상과 광고의 제작을 지시하고 영향을 미쳤다는 혐의입니다. 로사벨라의 AI 마케팅 관행은 이미 404 Media와 뉴욕타임스(NYT)에서 다룬 적이 있지만, 가장 심층적으로 조명된 곳은 콘스피리추얼리티(Conspirituality) 팟캐스트의 훌륭한 에피소드였습니다.
이번 소송은 20대 유튜버들로 구성된 이 그룹이 어떻게 AI로 생성된 인플루언서 군단을 구축했는지에 대한 새로운 세부 정보를 공개합니다. 사실상 로사벨라는 영양제 회사라기보다는 소셜 미디어 AI 콘텐츠 장사이자 AI 마케팅 실험에 가깝습니다. 이번 사건에서 벌어진 일은 우리가 이전에 반복해서 보도했던 것과 동일한 유형의 스팸성 '내 강의 사서 일확천금 하라'는 전략이며, 다만 이번에는 그 허튼소리(AI 슬롭)가 주로 노년층을 상대로 영양제를 판매하는 데 사용되었다는 점이 다릅니다. 여기서 수익은 소셜 미디어 영상 조회수에서 발생하는 것이 아니라, 판매된 제품에 대한 수수료 형태로 지급됩니다.
이 소송은 로버트 프로인트(Rob Freund)라는 변호사가 X(트위터)에서 포착했습니다. 건강 및 영양제 산업을 연구하며 콘스피리추얼리티 팟캐스트의 해당 에피소드를 취재했던 맬러리 디밀(Mallory DeMille)는 404 Media에 "이 사람들은 모두 과거에 드롭시핑(Dropshipping)을 하던 사람들"이라며 다음과 같이 말했습니다. "AI 콘텐츠를 만들어 무엇이든 팔 수 있었음에도 이들은 영양제를 선택했습니다. 영양제가 규제가 거의 없는 시장이라서 [그들이] 원하는 어떤 제품이든 감시 없이 마음껏 쏟아낼 수 있었기 때문에 영양제를 택한 것은 흥미롭습니다. 마케팅 측면에서도 규제가 꽤 느슨하고, 실제 [인간] 인플루언서의 영향력이 크게 작용하기 때문입니다."
In February, a content creator from New Zealand named Harry Chang posted a YouTube video called “ This AI TikTok Shop Video Made Me $67,420 (Here’s How) .” In the video, Chang and another YouTuber, Jimmy Farley, describe how Chang created a viral marketing video for a supplement company called Rosabella called the “Nigerian SECRET to CLEAN LIVER!!” Chang explains that he copy-pasted the script from a video posted by an account called “liverboosthub11” and tweaked it to suggest the supplement he was marketing is “something that’s been used in Asia or Africa for a long time that a lot of people don’t know about in America.”. In Google’s VEO 3, he created an AI-generated Black woman wearing a surgical mask in the foreground of the video, pointing up at another AI-generated Black woman (created in a tool called HeyGen) wearing a pink dress and standing on a stage. He directed the woman in the foreground to have a “strong African American accent,” and to say, “Why is nobody talking about what this hoe said?! If you’ve got issues with that belly, must watch!” “Builds curiosity, builds intrigue,” Chang says about his creation. “People want to know, ‘damn, what did she say? What did that ho say?’” To make the AI-generated woman on stage read the script he took from liverboosthub11, he pulls up the popular AI voice generator ElevenLabs. He scrolls through a list of voices that he had created, including “African American Woman Organic,” “Black Man 1,” “ORGANIC White Southern Woman,” and “Sad Black Woman in Car.” He settles on a voice called “Latisha 1.” He syncs the voice with the AI-generated videos he created in the video editing software CapCut. This AI video goes on to get 1.3 million views on TikTok and apparently earned him tens of thousands of dollars in affiliate sales. In another video, Chang explains how he has made tens of thousands of dollars using AI influencers. “I’ve even had my clients buy me Rolexes for selling so much of their products,” he says. The video’s title is “ How I print $51,000/month profit with AI influencers (feels illegal) .” A new lawsuit argues that the strategy is, indeed, illegal. (After 404 Media asked for comment for this story, several of the YouTube videos mentioned in this article were deleted). In February, a supplement company called Humann sued a competitor called Ambrosia Brands because Ambrosia, through the supplement company called Rosabella, allegedly directed and influenced the creation of hundreds of TikTok Shop videos and ads featuring AI-generated “doctors” that oversold the supposed benefits of Rosabella’s products. Rosabella’s AI marketing practices have previously been written about by 404 Media and The New York Times , but were most thoroughly explored in an excellent episode of the podcast Conspirituality . The lawsuit reveals new details about how this group of 20-something YouTubers built their army of AI-generated influencers. In practice, Rosabella is more of a social media AI content hustle and AI marketing exercise than a supplement company. What happened in this case is the same type of spam and buy-my-course to get-rich-quick strategy that we have repeatedly written about , only this time the slop is being used to shill supplements largely to the elderly. Rather than payouts coming from the number of views a video gets on social media, the payouts are commissions on products sold. The lawsuit was spotted by the lawyer Rob Freund on X . “All these guys are ex-dropshipping guys,” Mallory DeMille, who studies the wellness and supplements industry and who reported the episode of Conspirituality , told 404 Media. “They could have chosen anything to sell to make AI content out of, but they chose supplements, and it’s interesting they chose supplements because it’s such an unregulated market where [they] can basically pump out whatever product they wanted to with very little oversight. On the marketing side, it’s also pretty unregulated and there’s a lot of real [human] influencers making unfounded health claims without there being many consequences. In terms of ease of making money — wellness, they chose this industry for a reason. I think it’s pretty seamless, has proven to be seamless and now they’ve sold a fuckton because of how easy it is.” The lawsuit highlights a series of TikTok videos—like the ones I described above, and most of which are still online—featuring AI-generated doctors, TED Talk-style speakers, and videos that are essentially identical to the ones Chang has repeatedly taught people on YouTube how to make. And hundreds of additional videos promoting Rosabella that are not highlighted in the lawsuit are trivial to find on TikTok. Many of them have hundreds of thousands or millions of views and seem to make wild promises about what Rosabella supplements can do. In another video, Chang explains why his favorite products to sell fall into the “elderly health” category: “It’s an extremely profitable niche, especially in the U.S., guys.” “In the U.S., they have very high demand for health products,” he says. “They don’t have any free healthcare, right? People over 35 literally are very concerned about their health […] You have moms who buy 100 supplements and put them all in their cupboard. It is crazy. It’s crazy.” “When you have such a high, problem-solving niche, it’s very easy to write scripts for, very easy to innovate, and just continuously make money,” he says, adding that he usually generates AI influencers who themselves look old. “They’re relatable and credible,” he says of three older-looking AI people he shows on screen, one of which is shilling beetroot powder from Rosabella. “Why? Because they are old. People are more willing to listen to old people only because they see them as more wise and intelligent […] and look how credible they look. They’re speaking on stage like TED Talk-type style and they’re more relatable because they’re more similar to the age we want to target. If you’re trying to sell health products to a 50-year-old, well, make your avatar 50 years old.” On TikTok, Rosabella used a mix of paid influencers and AI-generated characters to make unfounded medical claims about its products and about beetroot more generally, the lawsuit alleges. “In several TikTok Posts, the post purports to show a doctor, medical professional, or other medical authority espousing the health benefits of Defendant’s products. All or nearly all of the ‘doctors’ featured in the TikTok Posts are AI-generated and fictitious, making the claims in the advertisement false and/or misleading,” the lawsuit notes. “For example, in a June 14, 2025 TikTok post, influencer ‘poormaninla’ purports to depict a doctor in a whitecoat that promotes the alleged health benefits of Defendant’s products. Before the ‘doctor’ begins speaking, a separate speaker is imposed on the screen in a surgeon’s or nurse’s scrubs.” The “poormaninla” account is still up on TikTok and its videos are almost entirely AI-generated. Several of the videos have hundreds of thousands of views. “The best food for Black women to eat if they want a slim stomach is not turmeric, it’s not ginger, and it’s definitely not blueberries. Just one teaspoon of this food reduces gut inflammation,” an AI-generated man in a lab coat says in one. You can see some of the videos promoting Rosabella here: The lawsuit argues that Rosabella is “orchestrating a misinformation campaign on TikTok through its network of influencers,” who “make various misrepresentations about the health and wellness benefits of Defendant’s beetroot products, which are entirely unfounded.” The lawsuit alleges that Rosabella, through a private Discord channel, offered extensive coaching to content creators on how to make AI-generated TikTok ads; that many of these ads featured fake doctors and other AI-generated people who were made to look authoritative; that some of these videos were racist; and that when people bought Rosabella products through TikTok Shop links on th