Are virtual avatars the future of digital interaction, increasingly less relevant to our old ways of thinking about social elements?

Indeed, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently thinks so. This follows from recent statements about how AI-generated content is going to play an increasing role in the experience of social media-a direction closely in line with Meta's own push to introduce more and more generative AI elements, including AI avatars based on creators.

And TikTok could potentially add the same, according to the latest feature update for Douyin, the Chinese version of the app.

According to AIbase, Douyin is developing a new project called "V" that aims to "expand the boundaries of live streaming and interaction."

As per AIbase:

"The central and iconic highlighting point of the "V Project" is the AI Avatar feature. In it, creators can be able to generate their virtual avatar that simulates their personality and thinking, thus allowing continuous interaction 24/7 with users. Users will be able to hold conversations with such an avatar and receive insightful thoughts as well as suggestions from the creator, ensuring real-time interaction even when the creator is not online.

Pretty much the same thing, by the way, as Meta's evolving virtual avatar model, which it presented at its recent Connect event.

Meta's video avatar tool will enable creators to build video versions of themselves, built on their previous interactions, posts, and other info. Those virtual characters will then be able to interact on their behalf, which sounds very similar to Douyin's model.

Though Douyin has more experience on this front.

On Douyin, virtual avatars have been on offer for a while now, with several hosting live streams of continuos shopping within the app.

And these digital characters are becoming some big result, putting them in high demand for brand partners. Indeed, there are over 993,000 digital avatar companies registered in China, offering cheap production of virtual characters that are able to stream 24/7 in various apps.

Given this, Douyin already knows how to produce and use virtual influencers, now available on TikTok as well.

Douyin's new AI character models will be able to participate in even more types of engagement in the app, including commenting inside comment streams, replying to DMs, responding during live stream chats, and more, all in the style of the creator.
Which will then free up creators to spend more of their time focused on other elements of growing their presence, although it remains to be seen if virtual characters of this type are going to have the same charm with Western audiences.

Many Chinese market trends failed to translate to the U.S., but shopping on TikTok is certainly one of them. And with that particular example in mind, virtual characters are going to be a hit, but Meta clearly thinks there's something to this, and perhaps there will be consumer interest in interacting with bot versions of real influencers in apps.

I don't see it.

No matter how good the AI bots are, they simply remain bots and not a human capable of actual conversations much advocated for as constituting the crux of social apps. I'm meaning that there are people doing chats with ChatGPT to aid in thinking through different things, with the bot then serving as a sounding board, of sorts, to clarify one's thoughts. That might be the kind of use case and interaction that is envisioned, but it doesn't look particularly interesting, or engaging, outside of novelty aside from replacing real people in social apps with bots.

Part of the charm of social media is that you can say whatever you want to anyone, so you can tag, say, a Hollywood celebrity in your post and maybe they'll even respond to you. Getting bots to respond on their behalf feels homogenized, almost an artificial relationship that equates, basically, to talking to a machine.

I’m not sure people will want that, no matter how human or lifelike these bots end up being.

But even so, it does seem like this is going to become more common, with more apps looking to provide more AI bot interaction options in-stream.

Perhaps there is more value to this than the initial impression might suggest, and perhaps users are now so hooked on likes, followers, and engagement that they won't worry that these are not coming from real people at all.

But after years of user complaints about bots and bot responses on social media apps, within DMs, comments, etc., I’m not sure that reframing them as smarter bots, that look like your favorite celebrities, is going to do the trick.