A growing wave of AI-generated influencers is raising serious consumer safety concerns after a number of social media users reported painful eye reactions linked to a lash serum promoted by a fake online persona.
The AI influencer in question presented itself as a lash technician with nine years of professional experience, offering ingredient breakdowns on various lash serums in what appeared to be authoritative, educational content.
The account consistently steered viewers toward a product called Forchics, praising its formula as containing ingredients like miritoyl pentapeptide-4, biotin, panax ginseng, and acetyl hexapeptide-8, and directing viewers to purchase it via TikTok Shop.
Content creator Kristina, who covers beauty commentary on her channel, flagged the account as AI-generated and pointed out the glaring ethical problem at the center of it.
“It’s not technically wrong information,” she said of the ingredient claims, “but again, it’s that ethical thing where he says, ‘This is the lash serum that I use.’ You don’t use a lash serum, you are AI.”
For some consumers, the consequences of trusting that recommendation went beyond disappointment. One user who purchased and used the serum documented her experience online. After an initially promising first three weeks, she began waking up with red eyes and discharge in the corners.
“I thought I had pink eye,” she said. “I’ve never had pink eye in my entire life. Mind you, my eyes are not sensitive at all.” She sought medical treatment, received drops for both infection and allergies, and the symptoms temporarily cleared. But they kept returning.
At their worst, she said: “My eyes were just like I couldn’t see. It gotten to the point where I could not see.” After stopping the serum, her eyes cleared completely. When she tried the product again using a brand new, unopened tube, the reaction returned the next morning.
Another user who tried the serum for three months reported no results whatsoever. “I feel like it made my lashes shorter,” she said, adding that she had since switched to lash extensions out of frustration.
She also noted that after purchasing, she discovered the product’s promotion had been driven largely by AI accounts and bots. “I had multiple AI accounts commenting on that TikTok that blew up being like, ‘It works. It works. Check out my page. You’re not even real.'”
Kristina highlighted that the absence of real accountability makes this type of promotion especially problematic. Unlike a human influencer who can face public scrutiny or professional consequences, an AI persona can simply be deleted and relaunched under a new identity.
“They’re just going to delete that specific AI influencer’s channel and then pop back up as a different AI influencer doing the same exact thing,” she said.
With no current regulatory framework requiring disclosure of AI-generated promotional content, consumers have little protection when the source recommending a product is not a person at all.
