NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

These AI Influencers Made $1 Million Per Hour

Every day in China, millions of people shop by watching livestreams.

Influencers show off products in real time (everything from smartphones to snacks) while chatting with viewers and answering questions. It’s fast, interactive, and hugely popular. Last year, livestream shopping brought in over $760 billion in sales.

Now, two Chinese influencers have pulled off a record-breaking livestream without ever going on camera.

Here’s a quick rundown:

• The livestream featured AI avatars based on hosts Luo Yonghao and Xiao Mu, both well-known figures in China’s booming livestream commerce scene.

• Powered by Baidu’s generative AI, the avatars looked, sounded, and pitched exactly like the real hosts. It wasn’t just a pre-recorded show; viewers could interact with the avatars during the stream.

• For over six hours, the digital doubles interacted with viewers, cracked jokes, and pushed everything from gadgets to snacks.

The approach worked; the stream brought in $7.6 million in sales across 7 hours, even more than the duo’s last appearance as their real selves.

With about 765M participating users, China’s livestream shopping industry is massive. Now, AI avatars could fully automate the functions of marketing and sales. What once required hosts, crews, and tight schedules could soon be handled by digital influencers running 24/7. 😳

📺 Watch this 0:44 min video to see the two AI hosts in action.

Artists Join New Global Wave of AI Residencies

Across the globe, a new kind of art program is gaining momentum: AI art residencies.

Deena Mousa explores how these initiatives invite artists to experiment with generative AI in her article in The Verge.

Bolivian‑Australian artist Violeta Ayala, for example, created Huk, The Jaguaress, an immersive AI installation featuring a robotic jaguar that tells interactive stories about the Amazon and environmental issues, responding uniquely to each viewer.

Institutions like Mila, the SETI Institute, Max Planck, and Villa Albertine (a French‑American cultural center) now host dedicated AI tracks. These programs offer artists access to powerful tools, computing resources, and expert collaborators, while also addressing the ethical, legal, and creative questions that generative AI raises.

So, are artists okay with AI? The answer is nuanced. Many are cautiously engaging, using AI as a tool rather than a substitute for creativity. As Mohamed Bouabdallah of Villa Albertine puts it: “The tool must be behind the human.”

These residencies give artists room to explore AI’s potential while questioning its ethics, biases, and ownership issues.

Meanwhile, the art world is taking AI seriously. Major museums like MoMA and Centre Pompidou are showcasing AI-generated work, and cultural organizations are funding it. This signals a clear shift toward legitimizing AI in art.

But debate remains. Lawsuits against companies like Stability AI highlight deep tensions over copyright and consent. As AI enters studios, galleries, and courtrooms, the larger questions (about originality, value, and authorship) are only just beginning.

Looksmaxxing GPT: Just for Fun or Too Far?

A new chatbot called LooksmaxxingGPT is trending on ChatGPT and it’s got people raising eyebrows.

The chatbot rates your appearance and tell you how to “upgrade” it (even suggesting plastic surgery 😬).

Here’s how it works: You upload a selfie, and the bot scores your face on something called the PSL scale—short for “Physical Sexual Attractiveness.” Then it gives you a rating from “subhuman” to “ethereal tier.”

Built by a developer called “Ant,“ it’s been caught telling users they’re doomed without surgery and that “a sharp jaw beats a $3,000 outfit 100 out of 100 times.” The chatbot has had over 700,000 chats.

While many are using it as a casual experiment, critics warn that these bots can reinforce toxic beauty standards and spread harmful ideas—especially to young men who are already anxious about their appearance. What do you think?

AI Around The World

A new report by the UK’s Alan Turing Institute warns that most policies ignore children, despite many being heavy AI users. 1 in 5 kids aged 8–12 regularly use AI, raising concerns among parents and teachers. The report calls for rules that factor in how children use the tech, and urges schools to teach AI literacy to help kids navigate it safely.

Nvidia and Perplexity are teaming up to offer custom AI models designed for Europe. The goal? Give users answers in their own languages, powered by local data and infrastructure. The models will run on Nvidia’s cloud network and support all 24 official EU languages. It’s part of a bigger push for “sovereign AI” (locally trained models that respect national needs).

Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics is now worth $1.3 billion after fresh funding from tech giants like ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and Geely. Best known for its robot dogs and dancing humanoids, the company is riding a wave of excitement around China’s robotics boom.