Beijing News Commentary: AI Impersonating Celebrities' Family Members to Sell Products—Platform Responsibility Cannot Stay Hidden

Platforms cannot be satisfied merely with labeling content as "suspected AI-generated" or "contains AI-generated content"; for obvious deepfake sales content, they should proactively identify it, take it down promptly, and clean up the violating entities, so that technology truly benefits the people rather than harming them.

"I am Feng Gong's ex-wife," "I am Liu Huan's lover," "I am Zhao Lirong's son"... In front of the camera, these "celebrity relatives" emotionally recount a lifetime of toil and physical decline, then pivot to presenting a "nine-steamed, nine-sun-dried Polygonatum and five-black grains powder." Recently, an investigation by The Beijing News Shell Finance lifted this veil of warmth: the so-called "celebrity relatives" are in fact AI-generated digital humans produced in batches, and the five-black grains powder that costs five or six yuan a box at factory price is sold for about 30 yuan via links.

What is more alarming is that this kind of fraud no longer peddles goods blatantly, but has draped itself in emotional clothing: first telling behind-the-scenes celebrity stories, then discussing concerns of middle-aged and elderly people such as "hair turning white quickly, poor sleep at night," and finally slipping the product quietly into the story. The story is genuinely moving, the product is genuinely ordinary, and the identity is genuinely fake. This new face of "emotional buildup + health anxiety + covert sales" is more deceptive than traditional false advertising and harder for ordinary consumers to see through.

The covert nature is also reflected in the lengthening of the chain. The publisher of the "Feng Gong's ex-wife" AI video may be just a part-timer who paid a 998-yuan "joining fee"; the purchase link is hidden in another account's product showcase; and the supplier is a company with zero employees. The AI video producer, the account operator, the product provider, and the platform each occupy a link in the chain, interlocking yet each able to pass the buck. The manufacturer's line that "the AI video has nothing to do with us; the company is only responsible for supplying goods" clears its own name while exposing the reality that the longer the chain, the easier responsibility is diluted.

But a long chain does not mean responsibility can "go invisible." The five-black grains powder is essentially an ordinary food grain powder; eating it causes no major problems, at most "no effect," and after-sales risk is low, which makes producers and channels more emboldened. Yet behind "no effect" lie consumers' deceived feelings and harvested wallets, the infringement of celebrities' reputations through misappropriation, and hidden risks of food safety and market order being eroded.

Such chaos persists despite repeated bans, and the core reason is a severe imbalance between cost and benefit: AI has pushed the threshold for producing counterfeit content to almost zero, while illegal gains far exceed the cost of subsequent accountability; accounts "fire one shot and move to another place," and regulation and rights protection cannot keep up with content spread; some platforms still "act only upon complaint," requiring the rights holder or family members to report before taking content down. More ironically, even the operating teams that "take on apprentices" warn students that "the platform is cracking down hard, so we don't recommend making AI celebrity-relative videos anymore," showing that platforms are not incapable of identification—their governance initiative is simply insufficient.

AI technology itself is neutral; it can assist creation, and it can also be used for mass forgery and harvesting trust. The key is that as forgery tricks become more realistic and sales faces more covert, governance must keep pace. Platforms cannot be satisfied merely with labeling content as "suspected AI-generated" or "contains AI-generated content"; for obvious deepfake sales content, they should proactively identify it, take it down promptly, and clean up the violating entities, so that technology truly benefits the people rather than harming them.

The more realistic the technology, the less responsibility can "go invisible." In the AI era's sales world, what is needed is not smarter forgers, but more clear-headed platforms, more responsible companies, and more effective regulation. Otherwise, today's harvested audience is that of "Feng Gong's ex-wife"; tomorrow it could be the trust of any ordinary person.

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