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Virtual singer Luo Tianyi performing with world renowned pianist Lang Lang in 2019 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. Launched in 2012, Luo Tianyi has nearly 3 million fans and even performed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing this year. Visual China Group | Getty Images BEIJING — From customer service to the entertainment industry, businesses in China are paying big bucks for virtual employees. Tech company Baidu said the number of virtual people projects it's worked on for clients has doubled since last year, with a wide price range of as little as $2,800 to a whopping $14,300 per year. Virtual people are a combination of animation, sound tech and machine learning that create digitized human beings who can sing and even interact on a livestream. While these digital beings have appeared on the fringes of the U.S. internet, they've been popping up more and more in China's cyberspace. Some buyers of virtual people include financial services com...

In this article MC-FR TWTR TSLA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, June 13, 2019. Mike Blake | Reuters Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no longer the richest person in the world . He ceded that title to LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault at the close on Monday, according to Forbes. Tesla shares closed down about 6.3% for the day , and have more than halved in value this year partially due to a sell-off that accelerated in the wake of Musk's $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Musk's wealth, mostly tied to Tesla stock, was propelled by a meteoric rise in the carmaker's share price, which rocketed more than 1,000% in two years. Arnault, through holding vehicles and family trusts, owns a little over 60% of LVMH's voting share class, according to SEC filings. Arnault is worth $186.2 bill...