The era of artificial intelligence is upon us, and Chinese e-commerce sellers are making extensive use of it to sell their products with 24/7 livestreams, straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie.
What Happened: Chinese e-commerce sellers are leveraging AI to generate commercials using deepfakes of influencers and then streaming them 24/7. What makes it even more interesting is that it costs very little, both in terms of money as well as time, to generate these commercials, reported MIT Technology Review.
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Two of China's biggest e-commerce platforms, Alibaba Group-owned BABA Taobao and JD.com, Inc‘s JD JD Live, have their own live-streaming platforms. Apart from influencers showing off products, buyers can also experience virtual try-ons, where influencers demonstrate these products to simulate real-world experiences.
Livestream shopping is massive in China. According to a 2021 study, 40% of Chinese internet users were already using livestream shopping, and it is expected to reach $720 billion by the end of 2023 – this is 85% higher than Apple's annual revenue in 2022.
One of the companies behind the livestream shopping boom is Silicon Intelligence, which specializes in text-to-speech technology. Its AI clone tools were used to require 30 minutes of training videos, which was eventually reduced to a few minutes.
The scripts, which were earlier written by humans, are now being done by large language models, too.
The cost? Just $1,000. This also covers the annual maintenance required for the tool.
Deepfake Evolution: Deepfake technology has gone from being used for esoteric purposes to more mainstream uses like this one in the span of a few years.
The AI clones being offered by Chinese companies can not only present a realistic live stream experience, but some advanced versions can also detect live comments and answer them in real time, giving an almost human-like experience to viewers.
However, there are concerns that these cheap livestream AI clones are eating into the jobs of human livestream hosts. According to a report, the average salary of livestream hosts in China fell 20% in 2022.
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