"No Controversy and High Buzz"... 'AI Show Host' is Growing Larger

Virtual Human YT Selected as SSG.com Show Host
Lotte Home Shopping Expands Virtual Human Lucy's Appearances
"Free from Controversy and Cost-Saving Effects"

"New SK-Ⅱ, I won't miss it~"

A woman promotes a new cosmetic product by mimicking a popular line from a famous celebrity. She demonstrates by applying the product directly on the back of her hand and exchanges jokes with viewers in real time. At first glance, she looks no different from an actual show host, but she is ‘YT,’ a virtual human created by deepfake technology from SSG.com.

SSG.com’s virtual human show host 'Yeti' is selling cosmetics on the SSG TV channel 'MD Talk'.
[Photo by SSG.com]

As controversies over ‘offensive remarks’ by famous show hosts continue, home shopping companies are expanding the use of virtual human show hosts.

According to the industry on the 14th, SSG.com officially appointed YT as a virtual influencer and cast her as a regular host on the YouTube SSG TV channel’s ‘MD Talk.’ MD Talk is a short content segment lasting about 2 to 3 minutes, where hosts exchange real-time KakaoTalk messages with viewers to deliver vivid product reviews. YT has been participating in this content in a test format for two months and has achieved sales of 200 million won. SSG.com explained that the content hosted by YT recorded about 30% higher average views and sales compared to content hosted by actual show hosts.

Lotte Homeshopping's virtual human show host 'Lucy' is selling Maison Margiela products.
[Photo by Lotte Homeshopping]

Lotte Homeshopping also plans to expand the use of its self-developed virtual human ‘Lucy’ through a mobile live app. Lucy has appeared as a broadcast show host for luxury brands such as Miu Miu, Vivian Westwood, Winix, and Maison Margiela since December last year. As the response has been enthusiastic, with three sell-outs on YouTube live commerce, Lotte Homeshopping is currently discussing plans to feature Lucy on the mobile TV platform ‘L Live.’ To this end, they plan to continuously advance the technology by developing Lucy’s own voice and utilizing TTS (text-to-speech) technology based on text.

An industry insider said, "Recently, as controversies over offensive remarks by famous show hosts have arisen, there has been a growing internal call to minimize risks. Virtual human show hosts are welcomed in the industry as they help prevent scandals, are easy to manage schedules with, and save costs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.