Trapped in a snow-capped mountain and survived on a sip of honey? I was completely fooled by the AI-generated tragic drama

Have you ever watched an old - fashioned TV show called "Legendary Stories"?

In the show, the host Jin Fei sat behind a table, telling those extremely strange and twist - filled true stories in a leisurely tone: A husband drove a 10 - centimeter nail into his wife's head to defraud a huge insurance sum; A pregnant woman in her eighth month died by the park river, and a few hours later, her husband was found with three stab wounds in front of the pig farm; An 11 - year - old boy suddenly disappeared mysteriously, rumors spread everywhere, and the truth uncovered by the police half a year later shocked everyone.

That's roughly the style. These stories once made countless viewers stay in front of the TV, scolding how outrageous they were while following every episode without missing one. After watching, they would also sigh: Is this a moral decline or a distortion of human nature?

Now, you don't need to turn on the TV to watch these melodramatic stories in batches! There are a group of accounts on social platforms with content like this: "My Parents Sold My Brother to Pay Off Gambling Debts, and I Sent Them to Jail with My Own Hands", "My Father Is Sick, but My Daughter at Tsinghua University Remains Indifferent", "I Quit My Stable Job and Returned to the Village, Ignoring My Mother Who Kneeled in Front of My Door".

Compared with Jin Fei, they have a higher production volume, updating dozens of stories a day. Their stories are even more dramatic, specifically hitting the exciting points of human nature. Their commercialization paths are broader, and many people place passionate orders for four catties of honey after watching.

01: This Generation's Product - Promotion Scripts Are More Melodramatic Than Short Plays

When you come across such a video, can you resist the urge to keep watching?

"Uncle Wang, you're the most mysterious person I've ever met. You've been hiding in the mountains for a full 20 years, without an ID card, a mobile phone, or any contact information. The villagers all say you're a fugitive, but I've checked, and you're not. So what on earth are you hiding from? Why have you been hiding for 20 years?"

Yes! What on earth is Uncle Wang, who looks so ordinary, hiding from? Next, Uncle Wang is going to tell his legendary story.

With tears in his eyes, Uncle Wang began to talk: In 1999, a young man saved my life. He said, 'Brother Wang, help me guard something for 20 years as a way to repay me.' He gave me something and asked me to guard it in the mountains. So I stayed in the mountains for 20 years and only came out this year.

What on earth is this thing so mysterious? The host, like a straight - man in a cross - talk, timely picked up the conversation: Who is the young man who saved your life? Why did he ask you to guard something in the mountains?

Uncle Wang said that he was a foreman on a construction site back then. He accidentally fell from the third floor, and his savior used his body to block the falling steel bars for him. "Three of his ribs were broken. I lay in the hospital for three months, and he lay in the next - door ward for five months."

When they were discharged from the hospital, the savior held Brother Wang's hand and told him a secret for some unknown reason. The savior said that his grandfather was a herbalist. He found a beehive on a cliff more than 2,000 meters above sea level. The grandfather collected some honey and felt extremely healthy after eating it. He lived to be 98 years old. Before he died, he told his grandson this secret and said that this was a treasure of nature and that he should find a kind - hearted person to guard it and take it out to save people when it was really needed.

It's really touching! The audience in the audience began to wipe their tears as they listened.

That's not all. Uncle Wang continued to say that after he went to the mountains, he found a cave and reclaimed a piece of land near the cave. He grew vegetables, raised chickens, and hunted, and spent his days guarding the beehive. Everyone thought he had disappeared from the world.

Twenty years passed like this. This spring, a stranger found Uncle Wang's cave and said that his savior was seriously ill. The doctor said he wouldn't live for more than three months. At this time, the savior remembered the honey left by his grandfather and asked Uncle Wang to collect it and send it to him.

"When I heard this news, tears welled up in my eyes. I've been guarding in the mountains for 20 years just for this moment." Then, in his 60s, Uncle Wang risked his life to collect the honey. The honey was on the cliff, which was extremely dangerous. Uncle Wang hung on a hemp rope and climbed down gritted his teeth. There was an abyss below his feet. It took him a full three days to collect all the honey from the beehive (I wonder if Uncle Wang was stung by bees).

Uncle Wang brought the honey back to the city and gave it to his savior. Something unexpected happened after the savior ate a spoonful of honey! "Host, I witnessed a miracle with my own eyes. After he ate it, he started to have a fever and sweat all over. The doctor was so scared that he wanted to give him an antipyretic injection. But Lin Tao stopped the doctor and said it was a good reaction."

After eating it for seven consecutive days, he began to get better. Three months later, the doctor was holding his test report with a trembling hand and said it was a medical miracle.

So far, Uncle Wang's task of guarding the honey has ended. But Uncle Wang is kind - hearted. He thought that if the honey could save his savior, could it also save more people? So he discussed with his savior to sell the remaining honey.

The savior is also a very kind person. He said, "Okay!" His grandfather collected a lot of honey back then, and there are still hundreds of catties left! (Why didn't he say so earlier? It made Uncle Wang risk being stung and hang on a hemp rope to get into the beehive.)

Uncle Wang doesn't care about making money. Now, four catties of this honey are sold for 69.9 yuan and delivered to your home for free. "This is depleting the mountain's stock. Everyone, quickly click and place an order in the window to grab it. If you're slow, you'll regret it!"

It's so absurd that even a dog would shake its head. "Legendary Stories" wouldn't even dare to make such a plot. This video is ten minutes long. Uncle Wang told the story with great emotion, and the audience in the audience was in tears. After watching it, you and I have wasted 600 seconds of our lives, and maybe even 69.9 yuan.

There is this honey in the author's product window on the homepage. 25,000 pieces have been sold, and each piece is four catties, which means 100,000 catties. This is hundreds of times more than what Uncle Wang said, "There are still hundreds of catties left."

Moreover, the honey is shipped from Zhengzhou, Henan. There are no cliffs with an altitude of 2,000 meters in the whole of Henan, so it's impossible to produce high - altitude honey from 2,000 - meter mountains.

It's very absurd, right? But there are really many people who believe it and place orders. They may be our grandparents, aunts, and uncles. After watching the video, they are deeply touched and also want to taste the miracle from the mountains.

Uncle Wang, this old guy, is so bad! At his age, he still deceives people. Isn't he afraid of falling when walking? Of course not, because our Uncle Wang is an AI virtual person!

There are too many similar videos on social platforms. They are packaged in an interview format similar to "Focus Interview". The protagonists tell their strange experiences in the first - person narrative: being trapped in the snow - capped mountains, being sold to a stupid husband, being raised by wolves. The opening is always a hook that is hard to resist.

The themes of the stories are diverse, but the plots are mostly the same template. At the beginning, they create a desperate character who is betrayed by relatives and on the verge of death. In the middle, they create a turning point with "miraculously surviving". At the end, the real purpose is revealed, and they promote products, selling honey, free - range eggs, lotus root starch... Because these products have a low unit price, a low return rate, and are popular among the elderly.

Actually, if you look closely, you'll find it very strange. To save costs, the author uses the same AI actor in several consecutive videos. But many elderly people place passionate orders after watching these melodramatic videos without having time to distinguish the truth.

Or rather, they never thought that such videos could be fake: Such a formal studio background, with a host, an audience, and real - life footage interspersed. Could this be fake?

Technology itself is neither good nor bad, but using technology to deceive the elderly is very despicable. Four catties of honey for 69.9 yuan is less than 18 yuan per catty. The retail price of common honey on the market is usually in the range of 30 to 60 yuan per catty, and the price of pure wild honey is even higher.

Honey sold at more than a dozen yuan per catty is lower than the production cost of most real honey. Many of them are made by unscrupulous merchants by mixing corn syrup, rice syrup with flavorings and thickeners, and have no nutritional value at all.

Now, they are packaged as mountain treasures by all kinds of emotional AI stories - the wolf - boy grew to 1.8 meters tall drinking it, and the person trapped in the snow - capped mountains survived with its help. A can of ordinary syrup is gilded with the tears of fabricated stories.