Welcome to fandom’s AI clout economy
Madison Lawrence Tabbey was scrolling through X in late October when a post from a Wicked update account caught her attention. Ariana Grande, who stars in the movies as Glinda, had just liked a meme on Instagram about never wanting to see another AI-generated image again. Grande had also purportedly blocked a fan account that had made AI edits of her.
As Tabbey read through the mostly sympathetic replies, a very different message caught her eye. It was from a fellow Grande fan whose profile was mostly AI edits, showing Grande with different hairstyles and outfits. And, their reply said, they weren't going to stop. Tabbey, a 33-year-old liv …