Virtual influencers aren’t exactly new. Back in 1985, Max Headroom, all flickers, glitches and deadpan satire, was billed as the world’s first computer-generated TV presenter. He wasn’t digital at all, but an actor in heavy prosthetics filmed against a blue screen. Still, the effect worked. Max blurred the line between real and synthetic, and for a while he was everywhere: talk shows, commercials, even pop videos. Forty years later, that experiment looks less like a gimmick and more like a warning shot of what was coming.
Now the technology is real. What once took a studio crew and weeks of post-production can be done on a phone in minutes. AI has turned the camera inside out, letting athletes, fans and even complete outsiders produce content that feels cinematic without ever stepping onto a soundstage.
Milano Cortina 2026 will be the first Olympic Games where these tools aren’t hidden in research labs or behind closed studios but in the hands of the public. Anyone with a bit of imagination can generate slick, polished content at almost no cost. As Alex Mashrabov, founder of Higgsfield AI, told the Financial Times: “The next media empire won’t be built in Hollywood or Silicon Valley but by a twenty-something with a small group of AI personalities. Individual creators with the right tools can outmanoeuvre studios, out-create agencies, and out-trend Hollywood.”
Paris 2024 will be remembered for many things: new sports, breakout stars, and its nickname as the “Meme Olympics,” when clips were chopped, remixed and shared across TikTok faster than broadcasters could react. That was just the warm-up. In the months since, AI has raced ahead. Each new release makes the fakes harder to spot. Skin tones look natural, movement feels fluid, voices carry believable emotion. The rough edges that once gave synthetic media away are vanishing.
Athletes will keep their eyes on competition. Most of them don’t have time to fuss with apps between training sessions and qualifiers. But creators and fans will. Expect an avalanche of AI-generated highlight reels, skits, spoofs and sponsor shout-outs as soon as the Games begin.
Milano Cortina is only the start. The 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America will push AI storytelling onto an even bigger global stage, and by the time Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2028, it may be hard to tell where the human stories end and the synthetic ones begin. Progress is not measured in years anymore but in software releases. Each upgrade sharpens the illusion, and each generation of fans cares less about what is “real” and more about whether the content is funny, moving or worth a share.
The next wave of Olympic storytelling will not be controlled from broadcast trucks or glossy ad shoots. It will be created on phones, in bedrooms and in ski lodges by whoever gets there first.