9 September 2026 News

Entertainment : The explosive growth of the AI short-drama industry has spawned a new business model of “facial authorization,” with companies like Xinzhao (新爪) and portrait trading platforms such as Yuanxiang Xinsheng (元相新生) and Mirafans Jingjie (Mirafans镜界) establishing operations in Chengdu, Chongqing, Hengdian, Wuhan and other cities, enabling ordinary people to list their likenesses for trade within half an hour by simply submitting multi-angle photos of their face and completing real-name authentication. Compensation for single-use authorization by ordinary individuals averages around 100 yuan, while professional actors and internet celebrities quote prices ranging from 500 yuan to thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan, with platforms taking a proportional commission. Cases such as that of Gansu native Wang Lei, who drove 900 kilometers to sell his face, and 63-year-old Chengdu resident Shuang Jie, who made a special trip to Chengdu for the same purpose, demonstrate that this business has evolved from online rumors into an offline reality. DataEye Data shows the AI short-drama market is expected to reach 4 billion yuan this year. Meanwhile, AI-generated virtual characters are beginning to acquire independent commercial value: the AI short-drama female lead “Fang Taozi” became a sensation following hit episodes and advertising quotes once reached 168,000 to 258,000 yuan, while male lead “Duan Yan” has begun accepting orders through collaboration with e-commerce platforms. Actress Qi Wei has proactively launched a limited-authorization digital counterpart “Han Qingxia,” retaining full ownership of her likeness and veto power over approvals, exploring a compliant path for celebrity AI authorization. Cyberspace Administration of China The Digital Virtual Person Information Service Management Measures (Draft for Public Comment) released in April 2026 specify that modeling using natural persons’ facial features, voice and other sensitive information requires separate consent, establishing compliance baselines for this emerging industry.

Long-form Drama : China’s first full-AIGC long-form drama series “Post-Journey to the West” Season One “Flower Fruit Mountain” premiered simultaneously on Hunanweishi (湖南卫视), Mangguo TV (芒果TV), and the “Drama Well-Watched” section. Led by executive director Li Dongxuan with a team of over 70 people, it leveraged the Mangguo Lingchuang (芒果灵创) cloud creation platform, utilizing Seedance2.0 and Seedance2.5 as primary tools to achieve industrialized production without live-action actors or on-location footage. The series topped provincial satellite TV ratings in its time slot upon premiere and became the first nationally produced drama to land as a pilot program for “audit while broadcasting” following the release of the “Broadcasting 21 Measures.” The drama drove consecutive daily limits for related concept stocks including Mango Excellent Media, Bona Yingye (博纳影业), and Huanrui Century. Prior to this, the AI drama “Peach Blossom Pool Records” had already landed on screens, while “Fisherman’s Song on the Border” (Fujianshengwei Xuanchuanbu (福建省委宣传部) guidance, jointly produced by Fujian Radio and Television and Ningxia Gongchandangren Zazhishe (宁夏共产党人杂志社)), China’s first Min-Ning cooperation-themed AI micro-drama, employed AI digital avatars of Fujiansheng Guangbo Yingshi Jituan (福建省广播影视集团) hosts, with all 42 episodes featuring AI-generated characters. It represents mainstream media’s pioneering exploration of “AI plus themed propaganda” and is China’s first AI drama series to obtain a micro-drama filing number.

Virtual Idol IP : B Zhan (B站)’s virtual singer Luo Tianyi’s “Luo Tianyi Audio Dataset” has successfully obtained the Shanghai Municipal Data Product Intellectual Property Registration Certificate, becoming the first nationwide case of intellectual property confirmation landing for a completely virtual human audio data product. The dataset is a processed collection formed by collecting, annotating, and calibrating Luo Tianyi’s distinctive voice characteristics, and meets the registration requirements of “substantial processing” and “innovative labor” under the “Shanghai Municipal Data Product Intellectual Property Registration and Notarization Provisional Measures.” B Zhan (B站)’s intellectual property director stated that in the future the company will continue to advance registration for more refined “voice corpus unit libraries,” employing a “breaking down the whole into parts and advancing layer by layer” strategy to provide replicable paths for intellectual property confirmation and protection in the virtual human industry.

Healthcare : A traditional Chinese medicine chain institution Gushengtang is advancing its internationalization strategy in Singapore and other countries while empowering diagnosis and treatment services with “AI avatars,” helping to enhance the international brand recognition of high-quality traditional Chinese medicine services. Since its launch in August 2024, the AI avatar intelligent agent “Maohongjing Yisheng @ Hanghao Meng (毛洪京医生@杭好梦)” of Mao Hongjing, deputy director of the Affiliated Mental Health Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (Hangzhoushi Diqi Renmin Yiyuan (杭州市第七人民医院)) and director of the Hangzhou Sleep Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment Center, has been built on high-quality clinical data accumulated from years of “Internet plus Sleep” full-course disease management. It has cumulatively served over 7.32 million patient visits, averaging approximately 24,200 consultations daily. In one instance, it screened patients within a minute and identified suspected cases of narcolepsy and severe insomnia disorder, recommending offline clinical visits, with patients’ conditions ultimately brought under effective control.

E-commerce : JD.com JoyAI App has launched its first AI digital human “Universal Doctor” capable of real-time video shopping, allowing users to upload a single image to customize the digital human’s appearance, persona, voice, and interaction scenarios, achieving “see it and buy it, speak and order,” with support for food delivery, mobile top-ups, hotel bookings and other scenarios. Payment processes incorporate voiceprint verification, driving JoyAI App user growth exceeding 15 times. The AI digital human platform Baidu Yijing (百度一镜) under Baidu jointly produced with Kekoukele (可口可乐) the “2026 CONCACAF World Cup ‘AI Fan Zhiyi Real-time Interactive Digital Human’” integrated marketing project, winning the “Top Innovative Marketing Impact(AI)” award at the Busan International Advertising Festival (MAD STARS) through real-time interaction, affective computing and dynamic content generation capabilities; Shaliwen (沙利文) and IDC certification shows Baidu Yijing (百度一镜) has consecutively held the “dual number one” position in China’s AI digital human market share and comprehensive product strength for two years, cumulatively serving over 100,000 enterprise customers, covering more than 30 industries including finance, automotive, e-commerce, media, and government affairs.

Cultural Tourism : Wuxi Yangshan Shengtai Xiuxian Lvyou Dujiaqu (无锡阳山生态休闲旅游度假区) launched a cross-boundary collaboration short film “Alita × Tao Xiaoyao’s Yangshan Wandering Record,” co-starring the AI stand-up comedy virtual character “Alita” and Yangshan’s official AI companion digital human “Tao Xiaoyao,” using a “stand-up comedy + time-travel Vlog” format to tell stories about Yangshan’s air quality and peach culture. The film achieved over 5 million views across the internet, demonstrating an innovative agri-cultural-tourism digital path through collaboration between proprietary digital human IPs and external vertical IPs. Yunnansheng Meiti Ronghe Zhongdian Shiyanshi (云南省媒体融合重点实验室) joined with Yunnan Yidong (云南移动) to create a multi-ethnic intangible cultural heritage protection and transmission project under the “AI4S intelligent computing service + 5G computing power network” framework. Leveraging AIGC and multimodal large models, it incubated application scenarios including multilingual digital human narration guides and VR immersive exhibition halls, and won first prize in the Yunnan division of the “Blooming Cup” 5G Application Collection Competition. Beijing Huairou (北京怀柔) will showcase an AI cutting-edge technology experience project titled “Your Digital Twin Is Ready” at 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). At the 2026 China Culture and Tourism Industry Expo in Tianjin, China Travel Digital Technology’s “Yunjing Wenbo (云景文博)” mini-program has been deployed across over one hundred cultural heritage museums nationwide, providing AI digital human narration, intelligent navigation in eleven languages, and one-click Vlog generation functions.

Enterprise/Marketing : A Chengdu AI enterprise Mingtu Technology founder, chairman and general manager Xiao Xuesong detailed in an exclusive interview the “OPC” (One Person Company) model promoted by its intelligent agent platform Wesome AI, emphasizing that digital avatars’ portrait rights and revenue rights belong 100% to their creators, with the platform implementing a “four certificates plus four databases” mechanism to ensure rights confirmation and protection, and has already pushed the platform internationally, signing educational cooperation agreements with Weixin Daxue (维新大学) and four other universities at the ASEAN AI Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam. Yiwu local enterprise Jinhua Yike Xinxijishu (金华缢客信息技术有限公司) launched “Yiwu Marketing Digital Human” fully managed digital employee services, customizing exclusive digital employee images for SMEs through facial replication and voice cloning technology (with copyrights owned by enterprises), and connecting account planning, short video production, information feed placement, lead delivery and AI enterprise GEO value-added services into a complete customer acquisition closed loop, helping Yiwu factories and trading enterprises achieve low-cost end-to-end short video marketing.

Virtual Streamer/Social Companion : Zhejiang Province Hangzhoushizhongjirenminfayuan (杭州市中级人民法院) concluded a labor dispute case involving a virtual streamer, determining that a “person behind the character” who provides voice and motion capture for a virtual digital person maintains a de facto labor relationship with the operating company rather than a purely cooperative relationship. The reasoning was that the company exercised substantive labor management over the “person behind the character” through livestreaming rules, duration requirements, and IP image maintenance measures, and livestreaming income was collected uniformly by the company and then distributed proportionally, which in essence constituted labor compensation rather than profit sharing. The case refined the rules for determining employment relationships in the emerging work arrangement of virtual digital person livestreaming. In the audio social track, voice chat rooms, virtual avatars, and community interaction features have formed mature practices in products such as Soul, and the emerging product “Ta TA Xingqiu (他TA星球)” is also focusing on polishing visual and virtual avatar experiences while continuously expanding the application scenarios of AI companion chat social applications.

Ethical Contexts : Zuigaorenminfayuan (最高人民法院) released the “Opinion on Lawfully Adjudicating Disputes Involving Artificial Intelligence,” serving as the first judicial ruling document on artificial intelligence released by the nation’s highest adjudicatory institution. It clarifies that generating and using or disclosing recognizable virtual digital images of natural persons by processing their names and portraits through AI without consent constitutes infringement of personality rights; using others’ voices without consent to train and generate recognizable synthesized voices constitutes infringement of voice rights; manipulating virtual images or synthesized voices to publish false statements and damage others’ social reputation constitutes defamation; and for the first time establishes regulatory rules for “AI resurrection of the deceased” and misuse of digital virtual images of the deceased. The Opinion also establishes a personality rights infringement injunction system, under which victims of deepfake fabrication of sexual rumors can directly apply for an injunction requiring network service providers or artificial intelligence service providers to take necessary measures promptly. It further clarifies that consumers harmed by “celebrity impersonation livestream sales” constituting fraud may claim punitive damages, and that service providers who generate infringing content due to “AI hallucinations” or malicious user inducement and fail to dispose of it promptly after notice from rights holders shall bear corresponding liability. On the regulatory and enforcement level, Beijingshi Changpingqu (北京市昌平区) investigated and handled an AI virtual person livestream sales case. The company involved used AI virtual persons in its flagship store livestream room to promote ordinary food as having health-enhancing effects such as “boosting immunity and resistance,” and was ordered to cease the unlawful conduct and fined 5,000 yuan. This became the first typical case in Beijing of false promotion of ordinary food health functions using AI virtual persons following implementation of the “Live Streaming E-commerce Supervision and Management Measures,” demonstrating that the business entities behind virtual person images cannot evade legal liability for false promotion by invoking technology.