this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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AI avatars in China just proved they are better influencers. It only took a duo 7 hours to rake in more than $7 million | CNBC (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 1 day ago by ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world to c/business@lemmy.world
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Avatars generated by artificial intelligence are now able to sell more than real people can, according to a collaboration between Chinese tech company Baidu and a popular livestreamer.

Luo Yonghao, one of China’s earliest and most popular livestreamers, and his co-host Xiao Mu both used digital versions of themselves to interact with viewers in real time for well over six hours on Sunday on Baidu’s e-commerce livestreaming platform “Youxuan”, the Chinese tech company said. The session raked in 55 million yuan ($7.65 million).

In comparison, Luo’s first livestream attempt on Youxuan last month, which lasted just over four hours, saw fewer orders for consumer electronics, food and other key products, Baidu said.

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[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Pretty crazy news. It's like we are living in a dystopian world of the 80s/90s cyberpunk novels.

[–] pycorax@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

used digital versions of themselves to interact with viewers in real time for well over six hours

This doesn't prove anything other than people don't really care what the avatars look like which has already been done for ages by the Vtubers without some AI nonsense. I was expecting this to be something like there being no human input at all. Why is this news?

[–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like they were running without human input, see last sentence:

AI avatars can sharply reduce costs since companies don’t need to hire a large production team or a studio to livestream. The digital avatars can also stream nonstop without needing breaks.

The phrasing is clunky, I'll give you that, which I think is attributable to this being early days for the tech.

[–] ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Not a fan of this application of AI, but I thought it was a little funny to read. It figures businesses would want to create artificial sales and marketing drones.

I guess on the plus side it may mean unlike real people you could more ethically and comfortably find ways to shut them down.