The Internet continues to bring surprises to the human world.OpenAIAfter the release of Sora, mankind has entered the era of AI video.Technological advances have made "digital humans" a reality.
Recently, some "AI digital human bloggers" have appeared on Douyin.AI beauty anchorThey are achieving considerable economic income through the grass-growing videos.
AI e-commerceThe era has just begun, and it brings both opportunities and challenges to everyone.
When a large number of AI beauties flock to Douyin to sell goods, don’t forget the hidden risks and concerns behind it.
Already earning 50,000 yuan a month
AI-generated videos are so prevalent that they are becoming more and more realistic.Each one is almost indistinguishable from the real thing, and the effect of fooling people is amazing.
Recently, a Ukrainian internet celebrity named Olga Loiek posted a video saying that someone created a non-existent Russian blonde beauty on Chinese social media, and the stolen face and voice are exactly hers.This not only harms her rights, but also creates ethical issues.
Image source: Phoenix Weibo
It turns out that the face of this Ukrainian female internet celebrity was moved to other videos by "someone with ulterior motives" using AI technology to promote products.
The account character is a Russian beauty who claims to "live in China", "want to marry a Chinese man", and "thank China". The account regularly posts short videos about life in Russia and China, and popularizes some relevant knowledge about Russia.
Through this set of templates and words, the account quickly gained 140,000 followers and successfully sold products on social media. However, who would have thought thatThe beautiful Russian internet celebrity who speaks fluent Chinese is actually created by someone using AI to change her face.
What is incredible is that this AI account has more followers than Olga's own account. Many netizens expressed fear about this:"I really can't tell the difference between a real person and a fake one."
Since OpenAI’sChatGPTAI has emerged out of nowhere. In this era full of miracles, AI is like a magical stone. With a simple throw, it can stir up waves in all walks of life. It seems that overnight, AI has become the magic wand that makes everything possible. As Jack Ma said,The era of AI e-commerce has just begun, and it is a brand new opportunity for everyone.
In addition to the business made possible by "AI Russian beauties", a group of AI beauty bloggers have quietly emerged on Douyin.
"Personally tested by a single mother born in the 1980s, click on the window below to purchase."
At first glance, the homepage of the Douyin account "Xiao Yi Mei" with millions of followers,This seems to be a blogger with a personality and good looks.
Image source: TikTok
A closer look reveals that the "sister-in-law" has overly delicate skin, never shows her hands, and has a very dull expression. Many of her videos are also marked by the platform as "content suspected to be AI generated."So it can basically be confirmed that this is not a real person, but an AI-generated blogger.
Currently, its account has 1.106 million followers, 555 items in total, and more than 40,000 items have been sold. According to Xindou statistics,It is estimated that "Auntie's Sister" has sold goods worth around 50,000 to 75,000 yuan in the past 30 days.
The common feature of these AI blogger accounts is that the content they publish are all AI-generated pictures of beautiful women. The background music of the works is a female voice reading the text, which is then combined with product elements to promote shopping carts.
also,Almost all the works in the account have the shared cart, and the main products sold are groceries and underwear.
However, this AI beauty sales model has low investment costs and considerable returns. For example, the number of fans of Douyin AI blogger "Chunxiang" is less than 100,000.But more than 110,000 items have been sold in total.
Whose money do the first batch of AI beauty anchors make?
In fact, you’ll often see little reminders below these videos that the content is AI-generated.But this does not affect the ability of these "beauties" to sell goods at all.
Moreover, the threshold to become an AI blogger is not high. You only need to have a Douyin account with more than a thousand fans and activate the product showcase function; then use AI tools such as Midjourney to create pictures of beautiful women; finally, select products through channels such as Douyin Selected Alliance, and then you can earn commissions by selling products through some copywriting.
Generally speaking, the image of middle-aged women is more attractive to the target audience.Most of the content posted by these AI beauty anchor accounts is targeted at middle-aged men.
For example, the AI beauty anchor "Chocolate Lemon" with 10.47 million fans is mainly targeting the middle-aged and elderly groups over 40 years old. She outputs emotional chicken soup for middle-aged men in the image of a beautiful woman, such as "Cheating a man who is sincere to you" and "What kind of personality does a man who cries often have".Later, through daily live streaming and selling goods, his income from gifts alone exceeded one million yuan.
Image source: TikTok
From the homepage of the Douyin account of "Chocolate, Little Lemon", it can be found that middle-aged and elderly men particularly like it. The videos it posts basically have hundreds of thousands of likes, and there are also thousands of comments in the comment section.
Coincidentally, many accounts similar to "Chocolate, Little Lemon" have appeared on the Douyin platform.The target audience is also middle-aged men over 40 years old.
Image source: New List
These accounts prove that AI-based content has a considerable audience. In the eyes of professional e-commerce professionals, AI beauty anchors may not have any technical content, but for some middle-aged male netizens with weaker discernment,"Post-80s single mother" is really attractive.
Image source: New List
This may also explain why the AI beauty anchor did not choose the image of a young and beautiful girl.On the contrary, her image is closer to last year's hits "Harvester of Middle-aged and Elderly Men" and "One Smile Can Conquer the City."
Similarly, the monetization model of these AI beauty anchors is to use the beauty image to publish emotional chicken soup content in batches, and to achieve profits through product showcases and exclusive memberships. In terms of specifically harvesting middle-aged men, the price of the product isLow-priced department stores are the main force in selling goods, with prices ranging from 9.9 to 39.9.
What are the pitfalls of AI beauty anchors?
The AI era brings both opportunities and challenges. At present, although the cost of creating AI bloggers is low and the efficiency is high, it has injected fresh blood into the live broadcast industry.But at the same time, it also faces some risks and challenges.
First, the authenticity is questioned. On the one hand, the AI beauty anchor who is easy to tell real from fake in the eyes of industry insiders may be difficult for many netizens to tell.They may even put real emotion into it and eventually place an order.
After all, the fake Jin Dong incident has already proven this once. On the other hand, characters like "single mother born in the 1980s" areThis seemingly real-life persona takes advantage of the weak discernment of some users and is suspected of fraud.
In addition, for display products such as clothes and cosmetics, there is not much difference between AI recommendations and real-person recommendations. However, for products that need to be actually used, such as household appliances and skin care products, as well as products that need to be tasted by real people, such as food and drinks, AI personal testing is out of the question. For example, a certain AI beauty anchor recently released an advertisement for health products, but it was suspected of false propaganda and the advertisement has been deleted.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
Secondly, there is the problem of commercial replication.The biggest advantage of AI beauty anchors is low cost and replicability. If they want to increase their commercial value, they must take the matrix route, mass-produce accounts of the same type, and publish a large number of videos. However, from the perspective of the platform, these accounts and content are easily judged as low-quality, and then encounter traffic restrictions or even account closures.
Finally, there is the risk of account violation.AI beauty anchors mostly choose to sell low-priced department stores, which is determined by the characteristics of their accounts. However, in the field of low-priced department stores, compared with low-profit branded goods, only products without any products and white-label products have sufficient profits.If the products are not carefully selected, it is very likely to violate relevant laws and regulations.
In addition, some characters are based on real people, which may even involve copyright infringement. A typical example is the Ukrainian girl above, whose image was stolen to attract fans.
In fact, my country's laws and regulations have clearly defined the boundaries that "AI face-changing" behavior should abide by. In 2022, my country's Cyberspace Administration issued the "Regulations on the Management of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services", which clearly stated that no organization or individual may use deep synthesis services to produce, copy, publish, or disseminate information prohibited by laws and administrative regulations, and requires deep synthesis service providers to establish and improve rumor-refuting mechanisms.This sets the "bottom line" and "red line" for the application of "AI face-changing" technology.
Image source: China Cyberspace Affairs Commission
Overall, the AI beauty anchors are engaged in a typical "sewer business". If they can do a good job of risk control, individuals or small teams may have good returns in the short term, but if they are regular troops, the gains may not outweigh the losses.