Nobody Wants a Fan Base of Bots

Nobody Wants a Fan Base of Bots

From Backstage w/ Matt Stone by Matt Stone Enterprises

July 21, 2026 · 9 min

About this episode

Matt Stone discusses the implications of AI-generated influencers and the importance of building authentic communities.

The New York Times found hundreds of AI-generated doctors, healers, and wellness influencers on social feeds — convincing-looking people who don’t exist, selling supplements to real consumers. Matt’s not here to pile on about how dystopian that is (it’s dystopian on its face, and there’s more coming). He’s interested in the opportunity hiding inside it. If the feed is filling up with synthetic humans, then being a real, accessible, meet-you-in-person human becomes the scarce thing — and Matt thinks that’s exactly where the next real leaders get built. Which brings him to a correction of his own thinking. He used to believe you could skip the messy work of community — just do the podcast, grow the YouTube channel, collect the followers. He now thinks that was wrong. A million subscribers isn’t a million fans; plenty of people click subscribe without being all in on you. Community is the thing that turns an audience into a fan base, and it takes real feeding: showing up, telling the truth, apologizing when you blow it, creating actual chances to connect. He also opens with an entrepreneur who inspired him — a Japanese founder who built a health food brand against heavy family…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Stone

Topics covered

  • AI-generated influencers
  • community building
  • entrepreneurship
  • authenticity
  • leadership

Keywords

  • AI
  • community
  • influencers
  • entrepreneurship
  • leadership
  • authenticity
  • wellness

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New York Times

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