In recent years, virtual idols and virtual anchors (VTuber) seem to be nothing new. Even if people are not fans of virtual idols, they must have heard of Hatsune Miku. However, when people mention "Hatsune Miku", the first label that comes to their mind may still be "2D". But now, inLittle Red BookAnd other social platforms, a large number ofAIThe blogger is attracting many fans by using beautiful pictures that are so real that they can be mistaken for real ones.
They often mark themselves as "cyber angel", "emotionless robot", "AIGC generated" or "virtual blogger" in their personal profiles, but many fans still mistake them for real bloggers, and some even ask in the comments "Can I add WeChat?"
In fact, there are not only cyber beauty bloggers, but also cyber cute pet bloggers, but the logic behind them is to use large models to generate different types of photos of the same image in different scenes and with different outfits. As traffic pours in, cyber bloggers also begin to think about their own ways to monetize.
Over 10,000 fans, thousands of likes, but the blogger is AI?
On Xiaohongshu, a blogger with over 10,000 followers wrote: "At the age of 40, we have valuable life experience, as well as confidence and beauty both inside and out..." with a realistic work photo.FirstSome people mistakenly believed the post to be true and asked, "Are you still hiring?" It was not until other netizens reminded them, "Don't you know that it's AI virtual generation? It's fake," that many netizens realized it.
Another beauty blogger with over 20,000 followers wrote in his profile "Cyber Angel, I am just a robot without emotions" and marked the word AI before each note. However, many netizens still found it difficult to tell the truth from the false and expressed their feelings that "this model is so beautiful". Many of his notes have received more than 2,000 likes, and the number of likes and collections of all his notes has reached nearly 80,000.
Another travel blogger sometimes appears at the beach wearing a belly-baring short-sleeved shirt, sometimes appears under cherry blossoms in a traditional Chinese costume, or checks in at a restaurant in a white sweater and a woolen hat. Not only does his outfit and scene change, his hairstyle, hair color, and jewelry also change frequently, but his "face" is always the same. Under these notes, people often ask, "Is this really AI?"
AI beauty blogger on Xiaohongshu
In fact, these bloggers who have become popular with their looks, whether they are girls next door or mature women, are all generated by large AI painting models. It is just because their facial parameters are the same, their outfits are diverse, the details are becoming more and more realistic, and the operations behind them will create a specific personality for these AI-generated images, so they are easily mistaken for real Internet celebrities. So much so that some netizens joked, "AI is becoming more and more like real people, and Internet celebrities are becoming more and more like AI."
In addition to AI beauty bloggers, there are also AI cute pet bloggers. Recently, on Xiaohongshu, a note titled "A cat that can cook is really a plus" received 28,000 likes and 4,000+ collections. In this set of AI-generated images, a kitten is holding a spatula in its paws and making a bowl of bibimbap.
The blogger "橙子橙啦" specializes in posting AI cats of his own creation. He has 57,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, and 480,000 likes and favorites. In a note pinned to the top of his account, a chubby Garfield is cosplaying as Bao Zong from "Fang Hua", wearing a suit and eating soaked rice.
AI pet blogger on Xiaohongshu
Zinc Scale search found that there are many AI cute pet bloggers like "橙子橙啦" on Xiaohongshu. The blogger named "是壮壮丫" mainly publishes AI works of a Shiba Inu named "壮壮". In these AI paintings, this Shiba Inu can get sick, go shopping, and go to work. When it is sick, there are many comments in the comment area, such as "have a good rest" and "Zhuangzhuang, auntie is reluctant to let him go"; when it goes out to buy vegetables, some people in the comment area say "remember to buy some meat to eat"; and when it is washing dishes, netizens immediately praise it for "not only being obedient, but also very hardworking!"... At present, the blogger has 18,000 fans, and has received more than 100,000 likes and collections.
How to monetize cyber celebrities?
When traffic came in, these "cyber influencers" also began to try to monetize.
Among them, AI beauty bloggers are still mainly cultivating their own private domain traffic. On the homepages of these bloggers, you can often see the entrance to their "group chat", and the purpose of the group chat is usually to "get the original picture" or "get the tutorial." The account introduction of the blogger "Artificial Intelligence Face" states that "If you want to customize your own portrait photos, customize the generation of specific clothing pictures, etc., you can contact me."
Zinc Scale found that AI photo customization is currently the main way to monetize. "In fact, this industry has just started, and there are not too many customers. Most customers are curious and will ask us to generate some specific clothing requirements." An AI painter on Xiaohongshu told Zinc Scale that in addition, some customers also hope to generate their own AI photos.
Among them, a blogger on Xiaohongshu who has been posting AI beauty photos for a long time is backed by a photography studio. According to the detailed price list provided to Zinc Scale, the basic package price is: 1,000 yuan for a single package, a total of 8 refined photos, but only limited to the existing style package; 1,500 yuan for a customized style, a total of 8 refined photos, but including a 500 yuan customization fee. In addition, you can recharge to enjoy a preferential price, and recharge 3,000 yuan to get a set. This price is even higher than many real-life photos on the market.
Price list provided by an AI photo studio
The studio's customer service told Zinc Scale that the process of purchasing customized AI portraits is, "First send about 10 photos of yourself, then tell us the specific requirements, and then make the payment. (We will) contact you with the pictures within 48 hours, then select the photos through video, and finally refine the photos you selected." Among them, 6 photos from the front and 4 photos from other angles are required to build a facial model.
Requirements may include bust size, preference (sexy, youthful, mature, loli), hair (waist-length, short hair, bangs, hair color), etc.
In addition, the customer service representative said, "Our studio is a membership-based one. After providing a facial model once, we will keep it for the members. If you have plastic surgery, we can create a new facial model for you for free."
In addition, AI model fittings have also appeared. For example, the account "Tuyujia AI Studio" on Xiaohongshu has previously published several notes on "AI model online business" and "AI model fitting business day", and said that "the workflow is becoming more and more stable." Although it currently has only more than 600 fans, it has already been successfully monetized abroad.
Aitana Lopez, a model and internet celebrity created by Clueless using artificial intelligence (AI), reportedly had a monthly income of 4,000 euros a few months ago. Recently, she said in a special "interview" with Spanish media that her monthly income has now reached 12,000 euros.
In addition to the beauty bloggers, AI pet bloggers are also looking for ways to monetize. According to the Youth Fortune Development Association, from the backend query, the advertising quotes of the top AI pet accounts are not cheap. The quote for the picture and text of "Orange Orange" with 55,000 fans is 15,000 yuan, and the quote for the picture and text of "Kong Yiliang" with 55,000 fans is 7,700 yuan. It is much higher than the (rough) quote method of Xiaohongshu with thousands of fans and hundreds of yuan. From the notes of various AI animal authors, we can often see product exposure, not only cat food, cat canned food and other pet products, but also glasses, cars, milk tea, etc.
but,At present, the traffic is still more inclined to the top accounts, and many follow-upAI BloggerThere are not many fans and traffic at present, which makes the overall monetization of the track more difficult.
Behind high traffic: low cost, low threshold, high risk?
According to Zinc Scale, most of the pictures posted by the above-mentioned AI bloggers are generated by overseas AI drawing programs such as StableDiffusion and Midjourney, but some bloggers have also begun to use domestic AI drawing software or applets.
"From the perspective of the big model itself, the computing power requirements are very high, and the quantity and quality requirements for training data are also very high, but for these users, the threshold is actually relatively low." Algorithm engineer Zheng Yi (pseudonym) told Zinc Scale that, generally speaking, in order to ensure the uniformity of the AI blogger's personality, the creator needs to set the parameter of "using the same face", but constantly train and debug other data to generate pictures of different scenes, different outfits and different makeup.
In the comment section of the notes of AI appearance blogger "cyberAngle", you can often see operators discussing this. When someone asks "Is there such a model? Are there any parameters?", the blogger will reply "They are all ready-made models, mixed with those dolllikenesses."
certainly,Since the existing models are not perfect and need to be constantly trained and debugged, some flaws can be seen in some of the pictures of these bloggers., such as crooked face, slanted eyes, wrong proportions, or twisted and deformed hands and feet.
"Because many large models currently focus more on details, the overall control ability is weak. Simply put, it can draw each finger very realistically, but when you zoom in, it may have drawn six fingers." Zheng Yi told Zinc Scale. For this reason, "cyberAngle" once mentioned that he "can always pick out ten out of 1,000 drawings" and there are also "three hands and five legs".
In addition, many AI beauty bloggers may also face copyright risks.In the comment section of some AI beauty bloggers, you can often see comments like "This really looks like internet celebrity XXX".
Discussion on Xiaohongshu about an AI blogger using internet celebrity photos
Among them, a picture of an AI blogger was pointed out as "Isn't this directly based on 33's (an internet celebrity blogger) face?" and "Is this AI fed with 33's picture?"
Zheng Yi said: "Pictures of celebrities and internet celebrities are easier to search online and are more likely to be used as training data, so there are indeed certain potential risks."
In addition, Liu Changsong, director of Beijing Mugong Law Firm, also said in an interview with the media:AI beauty pictures, it is difficult to obtain intellectual property protection. If the facial data is used without the consent of the real person, it involves infringement issues. In addition, he mentioned that if the generated pictures show nudity or even some sexual performances, this is considered to be the dissemination of obscene materials, which can directly constitute a public security violation or even a criminal offense.
It is worth mentioning that Zinc Scale has noticed that social platforms such as Xiaohongshu have been increasing their supervision of "vulgar and borderline" content in recent years. For this reason, many real bloggers often need to emphasize "normal outfits" in their notes. However, AI beauty bloggers often wear clothes with high skin exposure, such as suspenders, and there is no lack of "borderline" content.
What is certain is thatThe AI craze is quietly integrating into the content industry and reshaping the ecosystem of social platforms and e-commerce platforms.In the future, there may be more cyber bloggers in our attention list. How the platform should supervise these AI bloggers will also become a challenge and test.