Image Source: Xiaohongshu, Generated by Veo

Redefining the Concept of 'Eating'

Written by: Li Xuanqi

Edited by: Chen Dengxin

Layout by: Annalee

From glass fruits that produce crisp sounds when bitten to jewelry boxes adorned with gemstones, from music-playing crystal balls to plush toys like Labubu and even gold bars... Everything, whether imaginable or not, is becoming 'food' for AI mukbang. These items are being stuffed into the mouths of AI hosts and chewed with apparent ease.

This trend has taken both domestic and international markets by storm. Overseas, a TikTok blogger named leilanikovac posted a video of AI 'eating' lava, which received over 817,000 likes. Another blogger gained over 80,000 followers in just three days after posting 11 videos of AI 'cutting' fruits. Domestically, numerous related accounts have emerged on major short-video and social media platforms, with many videos receiving over 10,000 likes.

As human mukbang faces various moral and legal dilemmas, with bizarre foods gradually disappearing from mukbang tables, AI mukbang has opened up a world of endless possibilities, emphasizing that everything is 'edible'.

The Traffic Secrets Behind AI Mukbang

'Labubu, crystal or jelly, which would you like to 'eat'?' On Xiaohongshu, a video with 14,000 likes features a female host's profile as she bites into a jelly-like Labubu, then switches to a crystal version, biting off its ear. Some netizens commented: 'Both Labubu lovers and haters are left speechless.'

But this is far from the most bizarre scenario.

On major short-video and social media platforms, the videos updated by AI mukbang and AI ASMR accounts showcase a wide array of 'foods', both real and imaginary. The most common are fluorescent-colored, jelly-like dolls, fruits, or vegetables, as well as diamond and crystal-encrusted hamburgers and cakes. More advanced options range from rusty phones and mechanical watches to LV wallets, foundation, lipstick, and eyeshadow. Some even feature a bed made of pizza or hotpot, with the host lying in and 'eating' the food.

The mukbang hosts mostly display similar side profiles, noses, mouths, and hands. Some videos feature AI child hosts, full-face hosts, or cartoon characters and animals. Additionally, some bloggers adapt animations into bizarre mukbang scenarios, such as depicting characters like Luffy, Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru from 'One Piece' 'eating' forbidden fruits and transforming.

How popular are these videos?

According to 'Duojiao Spicy', the high traffic, often exceeding 100,000 or even 1 million views, brings direct advertising revenue to AI ASMR videos. Platforms like Douyin, Bilibili, and YouTube offer creator incentives and ad revenue-sharing plans. Some professional AI ASMR accounts have achieved stable monthly incomes exceeding 10,000 yuan through frequent updates and likes.

Although traffic varies on domestic social media platforms, the low production costs and ability for mass production and updates have attracted numerous new accounts.

Zincode learned that most AI mukbang videos are generated by Veo3, a video generation model released by Google DeepMind in late May. Its key feature is the ability to generate sounds matching the visuals with a single click, which is crucial for mukbang.

As AI mukbang videos become a traffic magnet, domestic tech companies are eyeing this new business opportunity.

When Kling launched its 2.1 version video generation model, it added a 'video sound effects' toggle and upgraded its 'sound effects generation' feature. Users can directly upload local videos or choose Kling-generated ones to instantly generate synchronized sound effects. ByteDance's Doubao large model voice team also introduced a video sound effects intelligent generation model named SeedFoley.

SeedFoley can analyze video content and generate corresponding sound effects based on the visuals.

In fact, Zincode noticed that on Xiaohongshu, the official Kling AI account has updated many AI-generated videos and creative shorts, including 'immersive ASMR mukbang.' In this video, a female host sits in front of a plate of gold bars and ice cubes, holding a professional microphone in one hand and 'eating' gold bars with the other, chewing seriously. The close-up of the chewing process shows very realistic skin texture and pores. The video has received over 4,000 likes, with many netizens commenting: 'It's hard to tell if it's real or not.' However, some also think, 'It still feels too AI-like.' The most common 'flaw' is that 'AI always takes a small bite with a big mouth, eating very little.'

Human Mukbang Faces Increased Challenges

As AI mukbang gains popularity, human mukbang finds itself in a different, challenging situation.

Once upon a time, human mukbang hosts known as 'big eaters' gained widespread popularity, with many top bloggers becoming famous nationwide. However, since 2020, regulatory authorities at various levels have launched multiple special campaigns to address the chaos of 'big eater' mukbang, punishing numerous non-compliant accounts. Meanwhile, the 'Anti-Food Waste Law' implemented in April 2021 and the 'Anti-Food Waste Work Plan' issued in November 2021 explicitly prohibit the production, release, and dissemination of programs or short videos promoting excessive eating and gluttony. Under strict crackdowns, abnormal live streams featuring gluttony have gradually faded away.

As a result, many mukbang bloggers have started to transform. For example, 'Mizijun,' once known as the 'queen of mukbang,' has downplayed her 'big eater' label and, after founding her own MCN agency, has transformed into a blog reviewer.

Image Source: Douyin 'Xiaobei is Hungry'

For instance, searching for 'mukbang' on Douyin, the top blogger 'Xiaobei is Hungry' has 16.64 million followers and 200 million likes. Browsing her homepage, besides regular mukbang videos, her secondary accounts include categories like 'raising kids,' 'fitness,' 'good finds,' 'stories,' and 'variety shows.'

However, the popularity of AI mukbang videos stems from their bizarre style. As a result, many human mukbang hosts still opt for unconventional routes to gain more traffic. Various morbid 'bizarre eating' contents, such as 'eating what ordinary people dare not eat' and 'eating what ordinary people cannot eat,' are still prevalent on some short-video platforms.

From eating the layer of fat stripped from pig intestines to two jin (a unit of weight, approximately 1 kilogram) of pure fat, and then to unprocessed duck butts... According to a previous report by the 'Beijing Evening News,' topics like 'challenging mukbang traffic secrets' and 'mukbang traffic reviews' once became hot topics on major short-video platforms, with hundreds of hosts and bloggers competing to showcase who could eat more bizarrely, obscurely, and disturbingly. Some hosts even admitted, 'I heard that as long as I showcase bizarre ingredients in the live stream, the viewer count will quickly rise.'

This year, the China Consumers Association advocated for rational resistance to extreme mukbang behaviors like 'big eaters' and 'spicy eaters,' suggesting that platform operators strengthen review processes, establish comprehensive content review mechanisms, and optimize recommendation systems to strictly identify, limit the dissemination of, and promptly remove extreme mukbang videos promoting gluttony and waste.

This implies further tightening of supervision on human mukbang. However, as AI mukbang creates fantastical visual and auditory feasts, continuously becoming a traffic goldmine with bizarre content and capturing user attention, the 'imagination space' for human mukbang seems even smaller. After all, this 'tongue-tip revolution' driven by algorithms not only changes the rules of content production but also redefines the boundaries of 'eating.'

However, if AI mukbang only satisfies curiosity, monetization will become an issue. After all, AI mukbang always lacks a bit of the 'human touch' compared to human mukbang.

In any case, this 'battle for popularity' will escalate from a simple content competition to a comprehensive showdown involving technology, ethics, and business models. The future mukbang landscape may see a new ecological balance: AI satisfies curiosity, while humans deepen emotional connections.