随着人工智能行业飞速发展，越来越多的行业开始尝试将AI技术与传统业务相结合，直播行业也不例外。那么对于此种现象，各方的反馈怎样呢？接下来我们来拆解一篇来自Sixth Tone的英语报道看看吧。

How AI Hosts Flooded China’s Livestream Platforms

On China’s livestream platforms, there is now a good chance that the influencer urging you to buy some heavily discounted product is an artificial intelligence-generated digital avatar.

E-commerce companies are increasingly replacing their human hosts with AI bots, which are cheaper to hire and can livestream for 24 hours a day without getting tired, state-run news agency Xinhua reported Thursday.

AI livestream hosts first began to appear on Chinese platforms a few years ago, and they are now rapidly gaining traction. There are now over 993,000 digital avatar companies listed on the Chinese business database Tianyancha, with more than 400,000 of those being set up just last year.

In June, digital avatars hosted livestreams for more than 5,000 brands as part of the “618” shopping festival, a Black Friday-style discount period in China, according to e-commerce platform and founder of the event JD.com. These AI-hosted shows reportedly received over 100 million views and generated over 5 million interactions.

The AI bots often aren’t exactly the greatest hosts: They are known for sticking woodenly to the same script and being prone to glitches. But as AI content generation technology advances, digital avatars are getting better at interacting with customers, according to an industry report published in March.

But not everyone is on board with the AI livestreaming revolution. Xinhua spoke with both consumers and merchants who complained about digital avatars still being “too standardized, saying everything in the same way, and sometimes not making sense.”

Live commerce industry insiders said they remained cautious about using digital avatars. A brand’s reputation often rests on the trust and emotional relationship it builds with consumers, and AI bots in their current form risk damaging that, they suggested.

How AI Hosts Flooded China’s Livestream Platforms   AI主播如何席卷中国直播平台

Flood是我们熟知的“洪水，洪灾”，除此之外，它还可以作动词表示“大量涌入，挤满，（使）充满”，英文解释为“to become or make sth become available in a place in large numbers”

例句：

Cheap imported goods are flooding the market. 廉价进口商品充斥着市场。

Telephone calls came flooding in from all over the country. 全国各地的电话像潮水般打来。

所以以后想要表达“某事物大量涌入/席卷/充斥…….，……多得令人应接不暇”就可以用这个形象的小词啦，还可以用被动形式be flooded with。相似的表达还有be deluged with, be inundated with, be swamped with等。

例句：

He has been deluged with offers of work. 许多单位纷涌提出要聘用他。

In an era of information explosion, people are inundated with a myriad of messages each day. 在信息爆炸的时代里，每个人每天都淹没在大量信息里。

Major cities today are swamped with fresh graduates unable to secure a decent job. 如今，大城市里找不到体面工作的应届生数不胜数。

On China’s livestream platforms, there is now a good chance that the influencer urging you to buy some heavily discounted product is an artificial intelligence-generated digital avatar.在中国的直播平台上，鼓动你购买大幅折扣商品的网红很有可能是人工智能生成的数字人。

 There is a good chance that……表示“某件事情有可能发生”，可以用来替换我们常用的likely, maybe, might, probably, possibly等。

例句：

There is a good chance that you have a bull’s eye on your back. 你很有可能成为众矢之的。

Influencer意为“影响者，网红”，英文释义为“a person who is able to generate interest in sth—-such as a consumer product—-by posting about it on social media”，还可以用 internet celebrity（网络名人）, web sensation（网络轰动人物）, blogebrity（通过博客成名的网络红人）, cyberstar（网络明星）, KOL (key opinion leader，关键意见领袖), blue-eyed boy（受青睐的年轻人，宠儿）等来表达。

例句：

Social media influencers aren’t getting rich—-they are barely getting by. 网红们其实并没有发家致富，他们只是在勉强度日。

He became a web sensation overnight because of a funny video. 他因为一段搞笑视频而一夜之间成为了网络红人。

She was the media’s blue-eyed boy. 他是媒体的宠儿。

 Avatar除了表示我们熟知的电影《阿凡达》之外，还可以表示“（网络上的）虚拟化身”，英语释义为“an image that represents you in online games, chat rooms, etc. and that you can move around the screen”。digital avatar就是指“数字化身，数字人”。

例句：

Whiteboards, markers and books have been replaced with interactive calendars, digital avatars and laptops. 白板、马克笔和书本已被电脑桌面日历软件、虚拟化头像和笔记本电脑所取代。

E-commerce companies are increasingly replacing their human hosts with AI bots, which are cheaper to hire and can livestream for 24 hours a day without getting tired, state-run news agency Xinhua reported Thursday.

周四，一家官方新闻机构新华社报道称，越来越多电商公司开始用人工智能机器人代替真人主播，因为这些数字人雇佣成本更低，并且能够全天直播24小时而不会感到疲倦。

 E-commerce意为“电子商务”，英文释义为“the business of buying and selling goods and services on the Internet”，这篇文章主要讲的就是live commerce，即“直播带货”，也是电子商务的一种。

例句：

Live commerce is a booming industry in China, and many brands are turning to the new form to reach new customers. 直播带货是一个中国蓬勃发展的行业，许多品牌正转向这种新形式来吸引新客户。

Bot是一种可连续反复执行同一命令的计算机程序，也就是我们说的网上机器人，英文释义为“a computer program that performs a particular task many times”。AI bot也就是人工智能机器人，也叫虚拟数字人，是前面提到的digital avatar的同义替换。

数字人

 

AI livestream hosts first began to appear on Chinese platforms a few years ago, and they are now rapidly gaining traction. There are now over 993,000 digital avatar companies listed on the Chinese business database Tianyancha, with more than 400,000 of those being set up just last year.

 AI主播几年前开始出现在中国直播平台上，并迅速走红。目前，已有超过99.3万数字人公司上榜中国商业数据库天眼查，仅去年就有40多万公司成立。

Gain traction表示“越来越受欢迎”，可以用来替换我们常用的become more and more popular，相似的表达还有 gain popularity（逐渐流行）, go viral（迅速走红）, become a fad（成为一时的风尚）, 和 be in vogue（正在流行）。反义表达是 fall out of favor，表示“不再流行”。

例句：

As China-chic is gaining traction, Peking Opera has become more present in people’s lives. 随着中国风兴起，京剧已经更多地融入人们的生活。

Traditional Chinese calligraphy is gaining popularity worldwide as an elegant and expressive art form. 中国传统书法作为一种优雅而富有表现力的艺术形式正在全球范围内变得越来越受欢迎。

It takes luck and resonance for a video to go viral. 一条视频要想爆火，既需要运气，也需要能引起观众的共鸣。

In June, digital avatars hosted livestreams for more than 5,000 brands as part of the “618” shopping festival, a Black Friday-style discount period in China, according to e-commerce platform and founder of the event JD.com. These AI-hosted shows reportedly received over 100 million views and generated over 5 million interactions.

一家电子商务平台京东称，在今年6月该平台举办的618购物节（类似“黑色星期五”的商品打折期）中，数字人主播为5000多个品牌进行了直播带货。据报道，这些AI主持的节目获得了超过1亿的浏览量，产生了超过500万的互动量。

Black Friday即“黑色星期五”，是国外最重要的购物大狂欢和疯狂“剁手季”。

至于为什么叫Black呢？是因为在黑五前一天就是美国的传统节日“感恩节”，黑五之后的节日就是“圣诞节”啦。大家感恩节后都会出去购物，为之后的圣诞节做一些采购准备。大多数商店呢，也因此会做一些促销活动，吸引更多消费者来买单，以增加财政收入。国外的账本，会用黑色的笔来标记盈利，用红色的笔来表示亏损，所以这就是Black的由来啦。

in the black便意为“盈利，资金充裕”，反之in the red则表示“亏损，资金紧张”。

The AI bots often aren’t exactly the greatest hosts: They are known for sticking woodenly to the same script and being prone to glitches. But as AI content generation technology advances, digital avatars are getting better at interacting with customers, according to an industry report published in March. 

AI机器人并不一定是最好的主播：他们往往死板笨拙地重复相同的文稿，并且很容易卡顿出差错，但今年3月份发行的一份行业报告显示，随着人工智能内容生成技术的发展，虚拟数字人在与顾客互动方面正变得越来越好。

Woodenly表示“僵硬地，呆板地，木然地”，英文释义为“in an awkward way or showing no expression”，同义表达还有rigidly, awkwardly, expressionlessly 等。

例句：She nodded woodenly, her body still numb from the shock. 她僵硬地点点头，身体还处于受惊吓后的迟钝状态。

Be prone to 表示“倾向于……（一般后接不好的事）”，英文释义为“likely to suffer from sth or to do sth bad”，同义表达有tend to, be likely to, be apt to等。

例句：Working without a break makes you more prone to error. 连续工作不停歇的人更容易出错。

除了单独作形容词使用之外，-prone还可以和名词组合形成复合词，如error-prone, injury-prone, accident-prone等，可以与be prone to互相替换。

例句：He is accident-prone.=He is prone to (having) accidents. 他很容易出事故。

Glitch意为“小故障，小毛病，小瑕疵”，常用来指电脑或硬件设备上出现的小毛病或技术上的小故障，英文释义为“a small problem or fault that stops sth working successfully”

例句：I had expected a few glitches with the new system, but to my surprise, everything went smoothly. 我事先就做好思想准备可能会遇到一些新系统的小故障，不过令我v惊讶的是，一切进展顺利。

Advance作动词表示“发展，进步”，可以替换我们常用的develop, make progress等。

But not everyone is on board with the AI livestreaming revolution. Xinhua spoke with both consumers and merchants who complained about digital avatars still being “too standardized, saying everything in the same way, and sometimes not making sense.” 但是并不是每个人都支持AI直播的革新。新华社与消费者以及商家都进行了对话，他们都抱怨数字人主播还是“太过标准化，总是重复相同的话术，有时候让人摸不着头脑。”

Get/be on board with 表示“支持，赞同”，可以用来替换常用的support, agree with等，表示支持，赞同的表达还有 echo（附和）, embrace（欣然接受）, applaud（赞成并称赞）, be in favor of（支持）, heap praise on（大加赞赏）等，可以用在议论文中表达人物观点。

例句：Even though emotional intelligence seems to help people in many areas, not all researchers are on board with it. 尽管情商似乎对许多领域的人都有所帮助，但并非所有的研究人员都赞同这种说法。

Live commerce industry insiders said they remained cautious about using digital avatars. A brand’s reputation often rests on the trust and emotional relationship it builds with consumers, and AI bots in their current form risk damaging that, they suggested. 

直播带货行业的内部知情人对于使用数字虚拟人仍持观望态度。他们认为，一个品牌的声誉有赖于与顾客建立的信任以及客情关系，而AI数字人目前的形式可能会对这一点产生负面影响。

Insider表示“知内情者；内部的人”，英文释义为“a person who knows a lot about a group or an organization, because they are part of it ”，反义则是outsider，表示“外来人，（比赛中）不被看好的人”。

例句：The situation was described by one insider as “absolute chaos”.据一名内部人士说，实情是乱作一团。

To everyone’s surprise, the post went to a rank outsider (= a complete outsider，此处的rank为形容词，表示“完全的、彻底的” ).出人意料的是，那个职位竟然落到一个毫不起眼的人头上。

原文链接：

How AI Hosts Flooded China’s Livestream Platforms (sixthtone.com)

英文释义来源：

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English