Can virtual digital people replace live streamers?

With the help of AI technology, digital human virtual anchors are rapidly heating up. During the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day this year, many "digital people" anchors quietly took up their posts and continuously broadcasted 24 hours a day, attracting many late night party members to place irrational orders

With the help of AI technology, digital human virtual anchors are rapidly heating up. During the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day this year, many "digital people" anchors quietly took up their posts and continuously broadcasted 24 hours a day, attracting many late night party members to place irrational orders.

(Metaverse Digital Human, 2023 Beijing International Service Trade Association.)

Data shows that currently, there are nearly 140 million anchor accounts in China, with virtual anchors accounting for up to 40% of them. From digital front desk and training instructors to live streamers and virtual idols, virtual digital humans have transformed into various roles, assuming the functions that live streamers have previously undertaken.

So, will live streamers be replaced?

Virtual anchor making a hot debut

With the digital wave triggered by AI technology, using high-quality and low-cost digital human virtual anchors for live streaming and sales has gradually become one of the hot phenomena in the live streaming industry in 2023.

Not long ago, a leading MCN organization announced an increase in the digital person live streaming segment, and major mainstream short video and e-commerce platforms have also introduced relevant initiatives and launched official digital people, demonstrating the industry's enthusiasm for integrating AI into live streaming e-commerce scenarios.

For example, during the "June 18th" period this year, JD.com launched the "Yan Xi Virtual Anchor" product, which is broadcasted 24 hours a day. According to JD's "6.18" battle report, the number of merchants operating in the digital live streaming room has increased by nearly 400% compared to last year's "Double 11" after a 10 minute start.

Data shows that currently, there are nearly 140 million anchor accounts in China, with virtual anchors accounting for up to 40% of them. From digital front desk and training instructors to live streamers and virtual idols, virtual digital humans have transformed into various roles, assuming the functions that live streamers have previously undertaken.

The daily makeup and hair, ancient and quirky expressions, and humorous language style inject "soul" into virtual anchors like "sweet and salty". They can take on the big role in program hosting and interviews, and show off their sense of network in entertainment interactions and online live broadcasts.

Nowadays, the difference in appearance between virtual digital humans and real humans has become increasingly small. Compared to some low-cost virtual anchors with rigid voices and rigid body movements, the "New Digital Human" combines deep learning, digital human rendering, and other technologies to present dynamic and realistic interactive performance, whether it is lip movements, facial expressions, or body posture, all resembling real people. Even some upgraded digital human anchors can recognize netizen barrages, answer questions accurately in real time, and simulate the effect of live streaming with multi-dimensional interaction.

The cost is only a few tens of thousands of yuan

According to data from iMedia Consulting, the total scale of China's live streaming e-commerce industry reached 1201.2 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected to reach 2137.3 billion yuan by 2025. According to the China Academy of Commerce and Industry, the overall market size of digital virtual humans in China will exceed 270 billion yuan by 2030, with identity based digital humans accounting for approximately 174.7 billion yuan, accounting for 65%; The service-oriented digital population is approximately 95.5 billion yuan, accounting for 35%.

Compared to traditional broadcasters, the advantage of AI digital people is that they can live continuously for a long time. Due to the rapid growth of the live streaming sales industry in recent years, it has brought about complications such as talent shortage, especially the increasingly serious head effect of anchors.

The report shows that the talent gap for live streaming in China was 8 million in 2021, and this number is expected to increase to 19.415 million by 2025. In the face of a huge talent gap, virtual anchors are seen as the best choice to fill their roles.

Compared with traditional live streamers with higher operating costs, AI digital virtual streamers can not only continuously broadcast information and easily obtain scattered natural traffic at various time periods, greatly reducing labor and operating costs, but also have more secure and stable personnel settings, effectively avoiding the risks caused by running away and negative news to the brand.

Currently, with the expansion of market scale and maturity of technology, the cost of virtual anchors has been greatly compressed. Nowadays, the cost of virtual anchors is only tens of thousands per year, with 24-hour live streaming, and they can also clone or customize IP images based on the image of a real person.

Flexibility and standardization need improvement

At present, the development of virtual digital human anchors is still being explored, and many problems urgently need to be solved. Although the overall cost is gradually being controlled, high costs still need to be invested to achieve refinement and differentiation.

In addition, compared to live streamers, virtual streamers still have a lot of room for improvement in interactivity and flexibility. In terms of e-commerce, many businesses have stated that the current conversion rate of virtual anchors is not high, and their ability to bring goods is far inferior to that of live anchors. Virtual anchors are 'too fake', with simple language, lack of emotion and personalization, making it difficult to attract users to place orders. "" With current technology, digital people are definitely unable to replace top anchors with strong personal styles such as Li Jiaqi and Xiao Yangge. "An interviewee said.

More importantly, although AIGC technology has helped accelerate the evolution of virtual anchors, it has also brought some complications. In May, CCTV Finance exposed that some live streaming rooms used AI face changing technology, which cost 35000 yuan to purchase a set of real-time face changing models, impersonating well-known celebrities for live streaming sales, and was suitable for various live streaming platforms. Some legal professionals have stated that using AI face changing technology for live streaming sales is intentionally informing consumers of false information or intentionally concealing the true situation, and has already constituted fraud. At the same time, it also constitutes an infringement of the celebrity portrait rights and privacy rights.

In June 2022, the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism jointly issued the "Code of Conduct for Network Broadcasters". The specification clearly states that "virtual anchors and content synthesized using artificial intelligence technology shall refer to this code of conduct." Virtual humans, which were once rarely given policy attention, are now receiving attention from relevant departments and need to accept the same code of conduct requirements as live anchors.

On May 9, 2023, Tiktok released the Platform Specification and Industry Initiative on Artificial Intelligence Generated Content. In addition to highlighting AIGC content to users, it will also use unified AIGC data standards or metadata standards to facilitate the identification of other content platforms and help other users distinguish between virtual and real.

As a new technology facing the future, the healthy growth of the virtual human industry depends on the dual wheel drive of technological innovation and regulatory escort. On the one hand, we need to continuously break through key core technologies such as human-computer interaction, virtual reality, and 3D display devices, transitioning from identity oriented virtual humans with unidirectional display to service-oriented virtual humans with bidirectional interaction, accelerating virtual humans into a large-scale application period, and creating greater value for the consumer market and enterprise services. On the other hand, the rule of law is the most reliable track for technological innovation to enter deep water and cutting-edge areas. As a new business supported by the new generation of information technology, the rapid development of virtual humans requires simultaneous consideration of data security, personal privacy protection, and ethical risks. Relevant departments may wish to closely follow the needs of innovation, timely improve the compliance system, and enable the virtual human industry to achieve healthy and standardized development on the track of the rule of law.

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