#wechatcom
**Miaoya, or Fabulous Duck**, an AI portrait generator app, has become extremely popular in China. Available on Tencent Holding’s WeChat, the app charges 9.9 yuan (US$1.4) to create beautified avatars in various styles from a single headshot and a set of 20 or more recent photos. The demand has been so high that servers are overloaded, causing some users to wait over 24 hours for their portraits.
The app’s popularity has bolstered hopes for the profitability of AI technologies in China’s large market. This surge in interest follows the launch of AI conversational bot ChatGPT by San Francisco-based OpenAI, a development that has seen major Chinese tech companies like Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, and JD.com invest in the technology.
Despite the hype, questions remain about the longevity of such AI products and their capacity for generating sustainable profits. Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the results, and privacy concerns are also prevalent, as the original privacy agreement allowed Miaoya to use the content in any media or technology. However, the company later amended this, stating that photos would only be used to create a digital image of the user.
https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3229259/meet-chinas-hottest-ai-app-portrait-generator-charging-us140-digital-avatar