How Chinese influencers use AI digital clones of themselves to pump out content

Questions over honesty and legality as livestreamers, particularly in online shopping, use avatars to boost their earnings

In September, Chen Yiru, a Taiwanese influencer with nearly nine million fans on Weibo, livestreamed footage of himself eating chicken feet for a jaw-grinding 15 hours.

His followers were suitably wowed – until some started to question if such a feat was humanly possible. The small print on the video stream confirmed their suspicions: “For display purposes only, not a real person.”

artificial intelligence (ai) asia pacific avatars boost chen chicken china chinese computing digital fans honesty influencer influencers legality online shopping questions september shopping technology weibo world news