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

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 Beijing law firm, said that AI avatars could not be "completely untied from the celebrity himself" and that "virtual live broadcasts … do not exempt celebrities from legal liability".