Yang Mun

Two separate outlets say the monk is not real, and they name the same person behind him. In March 2026 Columbia News Service reported that Yang Mun is an AI-generated monk created by Shalev Hani, an Israel-based marketer. Hani says he has made more than $300,000 since he launched the character in October 2025. A January 2026 VirtualHumans.org piece credits the same creator, writing as Shalev H, and gives his own account of the tools he uses: ChatGPT writes the scripts, Nano Banana makes the images, ElevenLabs makes the voice and HeyGen does the lip-synced video. That means the face, the voice and the words are all generated. Neither outlet names an actor, voice artist or real monk.

The account has not always been open about this. Columbia News Service found AI labels on some Instagram videos but not on others. It also reported that the website then insisted "Yang Mun is a real person", and that one video gives him a made-up life story: born in a Chinese village in 1939, moved to Kansas as a child. The website now calls him "a digital teacher" and no longer makes that claim. Buddhist scholars quoted by Columbia News Service called the character deceptive.

The evidence is strong. The creator's own statements and independent reporting agree. Hani turned down Columbia News Service's request for an interview, so his account of how the character is made comes from his public posts, not from a conversation with a reporter.