ElectroVagrantJun 19, 2025

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

https://lemmy.world/post/31674738

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 - Lemmy.World

> 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). [https://weibo.com/7762107285/PwI3JihXq] > > 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.

Show threadpycorax

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?

Jun 20, 2025 at 1:38amWeb
Show threadElectroVagrantJun 20, 2025

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.