**The real game behind the virtual anchor: AI completely replaces the “people in the middle”, will fans buy it?**
*If one day, AI completely replaces “people in the middle”, will fans buy it? Or will people miss those living idols of the past who were at risk of overturning?*
In the past two years, on the Internet, which is increasingly unable to tell new stories, virtual idols are moving from the edge to the center of the stage. But something happened recently that made people see the real game behind the virtual idol.
On May 21, a virtual anchor named “Borin Porin” at station B posted that he disappeared for half a year because he was abducted and later rescued by the police. On May 31, this sensational story was debunked. Station B permanently banned the account, and stated that it would carry out a site-wide investigation of the false content of the MCN agency.
Trafficking is fake, traffic cheating is real. Although this is just a little-known anchor, it reflects a truth: where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there is interest, there is the surging of human nature and the game of all parties.
People who don’t care much about the two-dimensional world may wonder, isn’t the virtual anchor fake, how can it be abducted and sold?
Letâ??s do a little generalization here first. At present, virtual idols are mainly divided into two categories, one is purely technical, such as the long-debuted Hatsune Miku, which is a set of sound library software and anthropomorphic images; the other is technology + artificial, which is made with technology. The two-dimensional image of the real person is played by a real person. Through optical motion capture technology, radio, etc., the movements and sounds of real people can be transformed into virtual image performances. We are going to discuss the latter.
In general terms, the actors behind the virtual idols are called “people in the middle” of the MCN agency. The external image of the virtual idol is called a “holster”.
Before this, there have been negative incidents of virtual idols. On May 10, A-SOUL, a virtual idol girl group under ByteDance, announced on the official account of station B that member Jiale will enter “live streaming hibernation” due to physical and academic reasons. Later, after digging deeply, fans believed that the girls behind the idols had problems such as unequal pay and treatment, workplace bullying, and life embarrassment.
The popularity of virtual idols stems from the common appeal of fans and capital to idols – not to “collapse”. The previous incidents of idol rollovers have shown that no matter how perfect the image on the screen is, idols have real life after all, and the reality side is difficult to control. Then simply go to the second dimension, and what is displayed in front of the fans is a cartoon image. He will never smoke, drink, fall in love, and gossip. Naturally, there is no car to turn over.
However, the deep-seated demands of fans and capital for virtual idols are inconsistent, which is mainly reflected in their attitude towards “people in the middle”.
From the perspective of capital, the existence of “people in the middle” is the product of imperfect technological development. The current technology has not been able to develop a virtual idol that is completely driven by AI, has a personality, and can be a fake, so it needs “people in the middle” to make up for the deficiencies as a transition. In the eyes of capital, “people in the middle” are voice actors and action doubles, and should not enjoy the treatment of traditional idols. After all, if the physical appearance and other conditions are good enough, people who can directly become stars will not become “people in the middle”.
For fans, after the virtual idol debuted, he grew up with the idol and poured his feelings into it. Even if fans never know what the “people in the middle” behind the “holster” look like and who their names are, they know that they are real people, and the object of their empathy will still be the “people in the middle”. Not a two-dimensional image on the screen. Therefore, when fans learned that the actual treatment of “people in the middle” was not satisfactory, they would angrily denounce the capital.
Why do fans empathize with “people in the middle” they never knew? Mainly because of the psychology of things hurting their kind. “Even an ordinary little person can become the person he wants in the virtual world.” As for capital, platform, traffic, and technology, it is impossible to empathize, because they appear cold. Only human individuals as vulnerable as us can comfort us, even when they are hidden behind a “holster.”
However, fans bypass the “holster” and directly project their emotions onto the “people in the middle”, which makes capital feel uneconomical, and there is a risk of losing control. After the popularity of virtual idols, if the “people in the middle” rely on their fans with self-respect, and really regard themselves as stars, then what are the plans for the development of technology, operation and maintenance in the early stage?
The ultimate intention of capital is to eventually replace “people in the middle” with AI through continuous iteration. At that time, fans will not be able to distinguish whether it is AI or a real person behind the “holster”, and a virtual idol in the full sense will be born. And such virtual idols are the money printing machines that are always obedient and never overturned.
However, if one day, AI completely replaces the “people in the middle”, will fans buy it? Or will people miss those living idols of the past who were at risk of overturning?
However, the controversy about virtual idols reflects that no matter how the virtual world develops, once the distribution of benefits is involved, the rules of the game that we are familiar with in the real world will surface.
https://finance.sina.com.cn/blockchain/roll/2022-06-10/doc-imizmscu6120070.shtml