AI agents have made inroads in businesses and government. Now they’re hitting the pageant stage. Samantha Smitte, 37, who worked at IBM for a decade, spent about $150 on AI agents to train for the Miss New York USA pageant next week, she told Semafor. They run practice interviews with her, suggest workout routines, keep her up on current events, and suggest dresses like those of past winners. Her AI “poise and style” coach for her onstage posing practice didn’t give good advice, unfortunately, so Smitte went with a human for that.
Space for AI in the pageant world has been contested: As an April Fools’ joke this year, the Miss America organization posted that it would use AI with contestants on stage, asking them to solve real-world problems. A pageant of competing AI-generated women, dubbed “Miss AI,” received mixed reviews, with some saying it celebrated diversity and others saying humans are losing touch with reality. Smitte said she can be fully authentic while using AI and called it her “collaborator and thought partner,” but added, “I don’t think we’re ready to see the AI in front of the curtain yet.”