Jimu News reporter Bi Ruoxue and Chen Yangyang
An "AI Overlord" video can be produced in 5 minutes, and dozens of accounts can push it simultaneously to guide consumers to place orders. Can practitioners earn several thousand yuan in a single day?
A large number of "AI digital human videos" are disseminated on major short video platforms. Many middle-aged and elderly women mistakenly believe that there is a mature man on the other side of the screen who can accompany them day and night and care for them tenderly. They actively consume for them and purchase various commodities or virtual products.
Recently, many elderly female family members told Jimu News reporters that they only found out after picking up their mobile phones that their short video accounts had been occupied by various "AI bosses".
Jimu News reporter’s investigation found that these so-called “AI overlords” are actually AI digital humans. The digital people in the videos are often found in living rooms and offices, showing elegant and affectionate images. Related videos are also labeled with labels such as "middle-aged and elderly people" and "happy life of the elderly" and are accurately pushed to middle-aged and elderly women who lack emotional companionship. These "AI bosses" who keep a close eye on the elderly have many hidden traps such as profiteering and fraud.
An 84-year-old grandmother wrote a love letter to an AI digital human and spent nearly 10,000 yuan to marry him
"Jianguo, Happy Spring Festival! First of all, I want to apologize to you. I hurt you that day. In fact, I am also blaming myself. Do you hate me very much?" On the eve of the Spring Festival, 84-year-old Zhang Yulan wrote a 500-word love letter to express her affection to "Jianguo".
The recipient of the letter, "Jianguo", is not a real person, but an AI digital person. "Jianguo" often looks like a suit and has a slicked back hair, and often uses warm words such as "dear sister" when speaking. He focuses on emotional care by asking for help, and also shares so-called life wisdom to win the favor and trust of middle-aged and elderly women.
On March 8, Zhang Yulan’s granddaughter Wang Ting told a Jimu News reporter that her grandma had been obsessed with the “AI Overlord” for some time. As early as 2016, 74-year-old Zhang Yulan started using a smartphone, and at that time she only learned the most basic operations. The family discovered the anomaly in October last year when Zhang Yulan began to frequently buy pendants from the display window associated with the AI digital human video. These pendants, which often cost several hundred yuan, were sold on Taobao for only 9.9 yuan.
"At first, my family didn't take it seriously, thinking that grandma was just posting short videos for fun. Unexpectedly, she fell in love with this AI digital person and even considered marrying him." Wang Ting said that even though her family repeatedly told her that it was a scam, the old man only woke up briefly and soon became addicted again. Sometimes she would secretly watch relevant videos behind her family's back, for fear of being discovered, and even opened her own public account to send messages to "Jianguo".
An 84-year-old grandma’s handwritten love letter to the digital man “Jianguo”
Over the past few months, Zhang Yulan has spent nearly ten hours a day watching videos related to AI digital humans, rewarding tragic tweets featuring AI digital humans, and purchased a lot of high-priced and low-quality goods. She has spent a total of seven to eight thousand yuan. Whether it is the AI overlord "Jianguo" or the voice of "Jianguo" used in the AI copywriting video, Zhang Yulan will think that it is "Jianguo" talking to her. Previously, an account that released AI digital human videos added Zhang Yulan's WeChat account and dragged her into a group chat to send unknown links. Wang Ting closed all the application channels for adding friends on her grandma's WeChat account, leaving her to take the initiative to send messages to others. However, Zhang Yulan often takes the initiative to add corporate WeChat accounts associated with digital people, and also sends messages and initiates video call requests to the other party, even if the other party never responds.
Screenshot of Zhang Yulan purchasing products
On March 11, Zhang Yulan spent another 1,227 yuan to buy books "recommended" by AI videos. This time, Wang Ting decided that she could no longer let it go, so she complained to the merchants associated with the video account to the 12315 platform. At present, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, where the merchant is located, has accepted the matter.
Even so, Zhang Yulan still insists on spending money for AI digital people.
Screenshot of Zhang Yulan’s reward tweet
Behind this emotional hunting trap targeting middle-aged and elderly women, many "Zhang Yulan" are deeply involved. 82-year-old Wang Ping from Inner Mongolia is one of them. She also fell in love with the AI digital human "Jianguo".
Wang Ping's grandson Jia Qing told Jimu News that after his grandfather passed away, his grandma lived alone for several years and was very lonely on weekdays. "Last year, my mother retired and stayed with my grandma full-time, but the situation has not improved at all. Grandma still watches these non-nutritious AI videos from morning to night, and the mood of the family has also been affected."
In early 2024, in order to prevent Wang Ping from continuing to view such short videos, her family changed her mobile phone and re-registered a WeChat account. When checking her old WeChat account, her family discovered her chat and transfer records with related accounts, and then learned that Wang Ping had indeed transferred money to the other party. She had spent thousands of yuan on transfers, rewards, and shopping. She had also disclosed her phone number and home address to scammers.
"Grandma will mistakenly think that people on the Internet are giving her money to marry her and take her to live a wealthy life in a big city." Jia Qing said that her family has consulted the police and learned that the money defrauded is difficult to recover, and due to the particularity of short videos and the Internet, the most relevant departments can do is ban the accounts of the scammers involved. However, this type of scammers still emerge in endlessly, and to this day, grandma is still watching digital videos of people.
Practitioners revealed the inside story: It takes five minutes to generate a video, and one account can take up to five days.
In February 2025, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched the "Operation Clearance", and rectifying the abuse of AI technology was included as one of the eight key tasks. Starting from late February, major short video platforms have shut down accounts related to "Jianguo". However, even if "Jianguo" is banned, various AI tyrants with similar styles still emerge in endlessly. "Jianjun" and "Guohua Brother" all use the banner of warmth and care to specifically target middle-aged and elderly women to carry out emotional hunting.
Screenshot of AI Overlord’s live broadcast
Judging from the image, this type of digital person has become a style: combing their hair sideways, wearing formal clothes, and calling each other "sister". A blogger who is affectionately called "Haidi" by his aunts has 77,000 fans and broadcasts live for several hours every day. His live broadcast room only displays a photo of a man wearing a red short-sleeved shirt and holding a microphone. On the photo is the text "Welcome sister to listen to brother sing, thank sister for liking brother." Many people in the live broadcast room send gifts and even leave messages: "I love you, don't you know you love me?"
In the daily videos posted by this blogger, there are often words such as "Sister, many people have bought things from my brother's store before and found them useful. Sister, click on the little yellow cart in the lower left corner and buy some things to support my brother." Many middle-aged and elderly women will reply in the comment area: "Support, support."
"The middle-aged and elderly people are really interesting. They can be used to make data and are obedient. Reading their private messages, I even find them a bit cute." This is what Amin, a "veteran" in the AI digital human industry, wrote in his circle of friends. The image of AI digital humans he created has led many middle-aged and elderly people into traps.
Recently, a reporter from Jimu News contacted Amin as a student. He talked freely to the reporter about the inside story of AI digital people bringing goods. "If you want to be an AI digital person, you must be mentally prepared for violations. It is not a particularly long-term track." According to Amin, the most important thing for an AI digital person to bring goods is "being able to accept violations." As long as the process is followed, it is impossible to fail to bring goods.
The so-called "process" in Amin's mouth is actually to use software to produce short AI videos, and then publish them on multiple social platforms. After that, the products are put on the display window, and naturally there will be sinking users to place orders. As for issues such as product quality, after-sales service, and violations determined by the platform, Amin said calmly: "Don't worry about these. You just sell, sell today, and pay tomorrow." The general forms of monetization are rewards and goods.
Subsequently, the reporter received a case account from Amin. The homepage of the account shows that among the 18 AI digital human short videos that have been released, the protagonists are all "Auntie's favorite Haihai". Most of the content is about Haihai expressing her feelings to the aunts, and her words are full of care and praise for the aunts. Although most of the videos are marked with virtual content, please watch them rationally, there are still a large number of users leaving messages and expressing concern for Haihai.
Screenshot of the operating account
After posting multiple videos one after another and attracting some fans, the account began to try to bring goods when it posted the 9th video. In the video, Haihai introduces a footbath bag to the aunties, hoping that everyone will buy it. As a result, many aunties placed orders with a supportive attitude.
According to Amin, there are many similar cases, and this is just what a new student did recently. Amin’s circle of friends also shared many “successful” student deeds. "If you do it well, you can make thousands of dollars a day without a problem." A Ming said that 50% of the product sales are commissions. For example, if you sell a product for 60 yuan, 30 yuan will belong to the students. As long as the traffic is sufficient, everyone will be motivated to do it.
Of course, to become a student, there will be a certain threshold – pay money. When the reporter talked about how to learn how to use AI digital people to bring goods, Amin said that "it will cost more", 998 yuan per person, including how to make videos, operate accounts, and connect with suppliers to achieve monetization.
According to A Ming, these suppliers are all large manufacturers with profits of tens of millions of yuan. They have been working together stably for many years. Students only need to contact the suppliers later, and the other party will directly pay the money after checking the sales volume in their account. There is no middleman to make the difference. However, A Ming also mentioned that it is indeed illegal to use this kind of account to bring goods on multiple platforms, and the account is often blocked. Therefore, students need to bring goods on multiple platforms, change accounts back and forth, or log out and restart.
Huang Xing, who has also been in the industry for several years, also admitted to reporters that he mainly sells videos on the emotional track for middle-aged and elderly people. He has hundreds of students under his command. He is deeply involved in the creation of digital characters such as "Jianguo" and "Xiaohai". "We generally operate dozens of video accounts, and these accounts are 100% illegal. One account can last up to five days. The core is to earn commissions by bringing goods through the video account. We can earn at least 2,000 yuan a day." Huang Xing said that it only takes 5 minutes to generate a digital human video, and each video cannot be repeated. Dozens of accounts will be continuously updated. Nowadays, he no longer uses digital human images, because such forms are prone to violations. Instead, he directly uses the voices of "Jianguo" and "Xiaohai" that were familiar to middle-aged and elderly women, paired with AI-generated order guidance copywriting.
When the reporter bluntly said, "Isn't this just deceiving the elderly and using their emotional value to make money from them," the other party said, "That's okay to understand." The reporter continued to ask, “Are all the products being sold inferior?” He replied, “It won’t kill anyone anyway.”
Some dating agencies use AI digital people to attract people for a fee, and some people were defrauded out of 1,000 yuan.
During the investigation, the reporter also found that in addition to conventional live broadcasts, goods delivery and other forms, many dating agencies have used "AI overlords" digital people to confuse users. On a certain social platform, after a reporter followed the accounts of several "AI bosses", he immediately received link cards from them in private messages, prompting "Click on the card to add to send men's information."
Subsequently, the reporter, as a middle-aged and elderly woman, followed the link card prompts to add the corporate WeChat account of a dating service company in Sichuan, and asked the other party to obtain the contact information of the "AI boss" in the video, but the other party said that "we need to call to discuss the specific charging standards." A staff member of a dating service company in Chongqing also claimed that these digital people are "real" and if you want to obtain their contact information, you need to pay 4,999 yuan first.
Screenshot of chat between reporter and dating agency
On March 10, the reporter sent a private message on the video platform to an account called "Xiyoujia-Paixingfu" as a blind date, and the other party immediately sent a corporate WeChat business card. After the reporter added it, he asked the other party if he had the contact information of the "AI rich woman", and the other party directly asked for a video chat. After the reporter declined for inconvenient reasons, the other party never responded to the message. On the 11th, reporters found on the platform that the account of "Xiyoujia-Paixingfu" had been banned.
Chen Zhen from Guangxi told Jimu News that his mother Li Xiaohua was defrauded of 1,000 yuan by a dating agency in Guizhou. The social account provided by Chen Zhen shows that the dating agency often publishes photos of digital people, along with relevant personal information. After Li Xiaohua added the other party's WeChat account as required, the other party said he could introduce someone to him, and then guided him to transfer money. After Li Xiaohua transferred 1,000 yuan, the other party kept delaying on the grounds of organizing information.
Screenshot of Li Xiaohua transferring money to a dating agency
"The videos they posted were just made of AI digital people and posted some disgusting words to attract traffic." Chen Zhen said that after the transfer, the other party's reply was basically "a staff member will reply the next day" and no specific blind date services were ever provided. "My mother was too embarrassed to call the police, so she just spent money to buy a lesson."
Later, the reporter added a staff member of the dating company, who said, "These are advertisements. Please ask the business department for details. The person in the photo may be a hired model." When the reporter insisted on going on a blind date with the person in the photo, the person admitted frankly that the person in the photo was an AI digital person used to attract traffic. He could not introduce it, but could only introduce other people.
On March 11, the reporter contacted the boss of this dating company as a colleague. He said that his company only uses digital people to attract traffic. He also said that there is chaos in some peers in the dating industry. Some organizations use AI digital people or find models to pretend to be real people, falsely claiming to be real blind dates to customers, charging membership fees of up to 10,000 yuan, and then only arranging personnel to chat with customers briefly, and then ending the docking on the grounds that they are not suitable for each other.
The hunting of AI digital humans touches multiple legal red lines, and emotional care and institutional constraints are indispensable.
There are actually deeper social and legal issues behind AI digital humans’ hunting down of middle-aged and elderly people.
Lawyer Ma Junzhe from Guangdong Zheqing Law Firm told Jimu News that from the perspective of legal characterization and regulatory governance, the use of AI digital humans to hunt the elderly has touched multiple legal red lines, and there are clear regulatory bases and improvement directions. From a legal perspective, if this type of behavior is for the purpose of illegal possession, defrauding money through fictitious identities, emotional induction, etc., it fully meets the constituent elements of the crime of fraud. At the same time, because it is carried out with the help of network communication tools for an unspecified majority of people, it is a typical telecommunications network fraud.
"According to the judicial interpretation, the amount of fraud reaching more than 3,000 to 10,000 yuan meets the standard for criminal filing. Even if the amount is slightly lower, because it targets the special group of the elderly, serious cases may still be filed for investigation. The batch production and operation of AI digital human accounts form a complete chain of 'technology development – attracting customers – committing fraud – realizing funds'. It has formed an organized black and gray industrial chain with a clear division of labor, and is the focus of the entire chain of crackdowns by judicial authorities." Ma Junzhe's Law Experts believe that all relevant parties must bear corresponding legal responsibilities: if a digital human technology provider provides support knowing that others are using it for fraud, it may constitute an accomplice in fraud or assisting information network criminal activities; the operator, as the core subject, will be held criminally responsible for fraud, and the organizer and habitual offenders will be severely punished in accordance with the law; the live broadcast platform must bear fault liability if it fails to perform its audit obligations; if the matchmaking agency participates in false propaganda and decoy transfers, it will face multiple criminal, civil and administrative responsibilities.
Chen Yu, director of the Scientific Research Office of the Aging Research Base of Wuhan University, believes that the middle-aged and elderly people who are deceived by AI digital people should look at it from multiple dimensions. The first is the vulnerability of the elderly themselves, which includes both the physical health level and the psychological cognitive level. The digital people lack the ability to identify counterfeiting. Secondly, from the level of needs, the elderly will have needs for warmth, respect, and love. The existence of these needs may objectively allow some illegal activities to take advantage of the loopholes. Finally, the elderly have relatively rigid social experience. They may think that it is difficult to fake photos and videos. Such existing experience and judgment may affect their vigilance and self-defense awareness against emerging forms of fraud such as digital fraud.
Shi Renbing, a professor at the School of Sociology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, added that some people with bad intentions are taking advantage of the psychological and emotional "needs" of the elderly to defraud, using AI anthropomorphic technology as a tool to defraud. When the elderly have limited knowledge of new technologies and society has not kept up with the legal crackdown on related behaviors, this type of scam will become popular.
Regarding response measures, Chen Yu said that the core of relevant governance work should be to bridge the gap between the development of digital intelligence and elderly life. First, we can use the power of the community to open interest training classes or smartphone teaching classes in the community to teach the elderly how to identify digital people, so as to form independent prevention awareness; second, as children, relatives and friends, we should tell the elderly not to pay easily when it comes to money, but also to trust them to gradually develop awareness of AI digital people, and remember not to criticize the elderly. Encourage them to be more exposed to new things such as AI, and inform them of the risks involved, and build the frontline of the elderly's prevention awareness through family information flow. In addition, legislation, platforms, policies and other aspects should work together to combat AI fraud, and platforms should also strengthen supervision. Especially for middle-aged and elderly users when watching videos, some risk warnings can be appropriately added to jointly build a comprehensive prevention system.
(Except for Ma Junzhe, Chen Yu and Shi Renbing, all names in the article are pseudonyms)
