Do AI bots dream of livestreaming for SEA e-retailers?

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Hi there,

Recently, I came across videos on Instagram of Elon Musk speaking fluent Mandarin and trying to sell some gadgets for a car. While you could tell it was a deepfake video, I was quite amazed at how advanced the technology has become. I couldn’t help but wonder how challenging it will be in the near future to identify what’s real and what isn’t.

This made me remember something that Tony Fadell – the “father of the iPod” – told me earlier this year in an interview: AI is going to push us into verification technologies faster than ever “because we’re going to need to know who we are dealing with on the other side.”

I could relate to it more with this week’s Big Story by my colleague Scott. It made me realize that we would be playing a game of ‘is it human?’ in everything that we interact with very soon.

With AI bots becoming extremely popular in China, he explored if – or when – this technology will start to disrupt the livestreaming industry in Southeast Asia.

He found out that while AI bot streamers are ready to make their way to the region, questions remain about whether e-tailers and ecommerce platforms are prepared to handle them.

Speaking of ecommerce, my colleague Putra looks at whether Indonesia’s early electric vehicle pioneers are vulnerable to new players – the same way Lazada was leapfrogged by its closest competitors.

In Token Issue, Scott analyzes Binance’s troubles following the conviction of co-founder Changpeng Zhao for money laundering. The platform was recently banned in the Philippines and saw the exit of a top executive in the country.

But first, the Big Stories.

— Collin

THE BIG STORY

1️⃣Can AI bots shake up SEA’s thriving livestreaming industry?

Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney

The region’s e-retailers are expected to adopt AI-controlled deepfake bots for live commerce in 2024.

TOKEN ISSUE

FYI

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