Asian influencers are using artificial intelligence to generate digital clones and provide continuous live broadcasts. Their revenues are exploding, but AI also poses ethical problems.
Artificial intelligence offers influencers unlimited income! In Asia, the stars of Instagram, Tik Tok or Weibo are being replaced by their digital clone. Their small business never stops running. They can broadcast live online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and their income is skyrocketing. A practice, increasingly widespread, which has provoked the ire of a large part of the nine million fyears by Chen Yiru on Instagram. Last September, this Taiwanese influencer embarked on a 15-hour non-stop online live broadcast. Hours of livestream eating chicken feet, promoting a local brand.
A performance considered breathtaking by his admirers, until some discovered, in small print at the top of the screen, the words: “For display purposes only, not a real person”. Chen Yiru’s superhuman challenge was entirely fake and the influencer deceived his audience. And this last point poses real ethical problems. The online commerce market in Asia is a completely deregulated and growing sector.
Research firms have estimated the size of the online direct market – basically today’s version of teleshopping – at 700 million people. It is a gigantic market in China, which represents 10% of internet commerce. More than half of young Chinese express the wish to one day become an influencer and training schools are full. The arrival of Artificial Intelligence completely changes the situation: the use of digital clones (like that of Chen Yiru) allows a non-stop presence which helps to boost sales and therefore revenues. And AI therefore poses this first problem: that of deceptive commercial practice.
The digital clone is replacing humans
The co-founder of Lang Jue Technologie, a start-up specializing in the creation of virtual influencers, Song Jiatao, very quickly saw his turnover soar. “Last year we were still using human influencers to sell clothes online. But people were unreliable. You trained one person and they dropped you as soon as they were trained. It was also very difficult to find good ones. An influencer costs you around 2,500 euros per month. For a clone, it costs 1,000 euros to scan the person and then use cloning software which will cost you 45 cents for 30 seconds of video. In the end, it’s much more profitable”explains this business leader.
The only rule imposed by the Chinese government, to date, is that the person serving as a model for the digital clone consents, in writing, to the use of their biometric data. For the rest, no specific measures have been taken to warn the public of the use of AI. And above all, no plan B for the 10 million Chinese working in the direct online sales sector, convinced of committing, just a few years ago, to a real profession of the future.