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

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." Many of Chen's fans were outraged, and he reportedly lost more than 7,000 followers between 24 and 26 September. Even the legal community weighed in. Quoted in Chinese media reports, Dong Yuanyuan, a senior partner at Tiantai, a…