Douyin has taken action on AI Internet celebrities

Douyin cracks down on AI influencers

In the age of AI, almost everyone says that every industry and product is worth redoing. In recent years, a number of AI influencers have emerged on social media, and they have begun to look around for opportunities to monetize.

The so-called AI influencer refers to the virtual character created by artificial intelligence technology, and the content creation and interaction through social media platforms to attract the attention of fans.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with using AI to obtain benefits through legitimate means, but it is possible to violate the law or even violate the law if you use any means to attract attention and make profits.

For example, on social media, some accounts are set as Russian beauties, who claim to "live in China", "want to marry a Chinese man", "thank China", traffic monetization and goods, and consumption patriotism.

In the wake of the AI influencer's fire, a foreigner accused the account of stealing his face and voice. Unbelievably, some netizens said that "I can't tell it's AI-generated"

Source: Screenshot from Weibo

And some even use AI to generate false images of handsome men and beautiful women, directly calling users "you", "mother", "mother", "husband", etc., posting emotional inducements, singing love songs, seeking benefits for you and other content that expresses false emotions, directing users to private chat tools, and even committing fraud.

Today, with the rapid development of AI technology, AI chaos is emerging one after another, and social media platforms are constantly cracking down on AI violations.

Today, Douyin said that the platform has grasped clues that some black gangs improperly use AI-generated virtual characters for crime, and will report to the police to crack down.

The Douyin platform found that there were still accounts on the site that improperly used AI technology to generate virtual characters to post content, and the platform took strict measures.

In response to the illegal use of AI-generated virtual characters, the platform will remove the illegal video from the shelves, cancel the contribution and profit-making permissions of the violating account, erase account followers, ban the account, etc., and use models, technical identification capabilities and other means to carry out long-term systematic identification, discovery and disposal.

For violations of using AI to generate virtual characters, Douyin lists several typical examples. It mainly includes three types of content: the use of AI to generate fake foreigners, fake elites, and the use of AI to generate image deception interactions.

Source: Screenshot from Douyin Security Center

In addition, the Douyin platform has made it clear that creators, anchors, users, merchants, advertisers, etc. must follow the corresponding specifications when releasing generative AI technology.

Specifically, publishers should prominently identify AI-generated content to help other users distinguish between virtual and reality, especially in confusing scenarios.

The publisher shall be responsible for the corresponding consequences of the AI-generated content, regardless of how the content is generated;

It is prohibited to use generative AI technology to create or publish infringing content, including but not limited to portrait rights, intellectual property rights, etc., and it is prohibited to use generative AI technology to create or publish content that violates scientific common sense, falsifies, or spreads rumors.

In fact, no matter how far AI develops, it will always be used as an auxiliary tool to promote the progress of human society. So AI as a tool, it is naturally beneficial to use it in a good direction, if it is not used properly, it is a matter of time before it is resisted, after all, it is a matter of man.

Revealing the business experience of AI Internet celebrities

Nowadays, a number of AI accounts have begun to emerge on social media, and an industrial chain has actually been derived behind it.

According to Chinanews.com, a person who has operated a number of AI foreign beauty accounts said that the technical difficulty and cost of creating such accounts are not high, and they can be achieved through AI portrait cloning software and live video materials, and there are already some mature generative software in the industry. Each account spends one or two hours a day, mainly for the purpose of accumulating followers and bringing goods, and the fans are mainly middle-aged and elderly people.

For example, the Douyin account "Chocolate, Little Lemon", whose account is the image of a middle-aged beauty emotional mentor, and most of the content is inseparable from the emotional problems between men and women.

There have been many accounts of the same type as "Chocolate, Little Lemon" on Douyin, and most of their user portraits focus on men over 40 years old, and at the same time, with the help of beautiful women's images, emotional chicken soup is output in batches, and finally realized by means of product windows and exclusive members.

Source: New list

In addition, in addition to operating accounts to bring goods, they also sell materials and operation coaching for such accounts, with a fee of 2,980 yuan, and the income from bringing goods is shared equally with students.

There are even tutorials sold on e-commerce platforms. Enter "AI beauty" on the e-commerce trading platform, and you can see very inducing slogans such as "2000+ daily income for novices", "5 minutes to make a video", "hurry up and make an account", etc., which are mostly shipped in the form of network disks, with prices ranging from a few yuan to dozens of yuan.

Source: Chinanews.com

However, the use of AI to bring goods in this way is very risky, and the use of other people's portraits to synthesize AI videos for live streaming may involve false publicity and even fraud for the buyer, and it is likely that the gains outweigh the losses.

As early as May 9, 2023, Douyin released the "Douyin Platform Specification and Industry Initiative on Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content", which stated that virtual human anchors need to register with their real names, and at the same time, they need to be marked with "virtual human live broadcast". This means that android streamers who are trying to get infinitely close to real people still face direct scrutiny from the audience.

Some people in the industry said that natural persons enjoy the right of portraiture, and the Civil Code clearly stipulates that the use of other people's portraits requires the prior consent of others, otherwise it constitutes portrait infringement.

It should be noted that the constitutive elements of portrait infringement do not include the use of another person's portrait for profit, even if it is not for profit, it still constitutes portrait infringement.

"Even if the infringed party is abroad, it does not affect the determination of infringement, but it is more difficult and costly for them to protect their rights. ”

At the same time, the production of unauthorized digital reproductions of a real person may also be suspected of being a criminal offence in some cases. For example, using AI videos synthesized from other people's portraits to engage in illegal and criminal activities such as fraud.

Live e-commerce has reached the second half

At present, the main reasons for the emergence of AI influencers on various social platforms are low investment, high returns, and high efficiency, but as AI regulations become more standardized, platform supervision is becoming more stringent, and using AI to do business may not last long.

After all, this kind of behavior of attracting consumers to buy based on fictitious human positions may be suspected of deception. Moreover, for the live broadcast room to be able to make money, it depends on the good management of people, goods, and venues.

First of all, it is very important to establish a trust mechanism in the goods industry. If the product recommended by the blogger or streamer does not match the reality, consumers are likely to lose trust, after all, transparency and honesty are the keys to earning consumer trust in the process of bringing goods.

On the other hand, anchors have gradually become an important part of consumers' orders. The emotional connection between streamers and fans also has an impact on consumers' purchase intentions. For example, Dong Yuhui has attracted a large number of "mother-in-law" fans through his humorous and eloquent talents.

Again, the success of live streaming is inseparable from the support of the supply chain. In the second half of live e-commerce, more attention needs to be paid to the management and optimization of the supply chain to ensure the quality and supply capacity of products. Because the stability and reliability of the supply chain is crucial to the continuous growth of live streaming, otherwise it will not be sustainable for a long time.

In addition, in the second half, anchors need to have more professional knowledge and ability, focus on bringing goods, and provide high-quality product recommendations and services.

At present, the tool attributes of AI have indeed produced great changes for the live broadcast e-commerce industry, but as a person who uses the tool, you need to make good use of its value, otherwise it will backfire.

Author | Li Ying