13 September 2026 News

Financial Services : During Shaanxi’s 2026 Financial Education and Promotion Week, Shanxi Jinrong Jianguanju (陕西金融监管局) joined with multiple institutions to create China’s first provincial-level financial consumer rights protection IP matrix featuring traditional Chinese cultural aesthetics, including Qin Xiaojing based on the Terracotta Army, Tang Xiaomei inspired by Tang Dynasty court lady imagery, Qin Xiaobao in courier styling, Tang Xiaoman as a female general, Qin Xiaoan as a frontier soldier, and Tang Xiaoning incorporating Qinqiang opera martial arts elements. The six digital avatars were integrated into the “Shaanxi Financial Consumer Protection Cloud Platform” and interacted with citizens through quiz activities at the launch ceremony held at the Mingde Gate Ruins Park in Xi’an. They will subsequently continue to enter communities, schools, and villages to conduct financial knowledge education and outreach. Fude Shengming Renshou Xian Zhong Zhi (富德生命人寿西安中支), Guangfa Yinhang Xian Fenhang (广发银行西安分行) and other institutions all participated in collaborative demonstrations. China Construction Bank’s Jiansheyinhang (建设银行) Branch in Guangxi leveraged the bank’s “Colorful Consumer Protection 3D Digital Education Exhibition Hall” during the campus financial education promotion week, utilizing AI+VR technology and coordinating with intelligent customer service “digital avatars” to conduct real-time interactive Q&A, blending traditional culture-themed garden markets with digital education. Ding He Baoxian (鼎和保险) company coordinated with the “Shaanxi Financial Consumer Protection Traditional Culture Digital Avatar IP” to launch engaging interactive activities in financial education promotion weeks in Shenzhen and other cities, popularizing financial fraud prevention and insurance knowledge. At the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) financial services special exhibition area, multiple banks including Gongshangyinhang (工商银行), Jiansheyinhang (建设银行), Zhongguoyinhang (中国银行), Nongyeyinhang (农业银行), Jiaotongyinhang (交通银行), China Merchants Bank, Huaxiayinhang (华夏银行), Beijing Yinhang (北京银行) concentrated their displays of digital avatar presenters and AI large model applications: Gongshangyinhang (工商银行) set up a vertical-screen “digital avatar” interactive device to service housing fund deposit units; Jiansheyinhang (建设银行) constructed a perceptible and interactive smart financial space demonstrating deep applications of AI large models in customer service, risk control, and digital avatars; China Merchants Bank leveraged the “Xiaozhaomiao” IP to create an immersive experience hall with digital currency interaction; Beijing Yinhang (北京银行) brought the intelligent interactive digital avatar “Jing Xiaobao” to the exhibition, showcasing AI innovation in inclusive finance and convenient services; Huaxiayinhang (华夏银行)’s exhibition area featured “digital avatar” presenters explaining to visitors, and equipped audit staff with “digital twins” enabling multiple professional intelligent agents to coordinate in completing full-process automation of corporate credit audit; China Merchants Bank’s corporate finance intelligent agent “AI Xiaozhao (AI小招)” and institutional scenario AI customer service combined with digital avatars have cumulatively served over 37.66 million users. Maifushi (迈富时)’s Dalian Operations Center, leveraging self-developed AI large models and intelligent agent middleware platforms, provides enterprises with full-chain digital intelligence marketing solutions including AI digital avatars.

Entertainment : In 2026, Waitan Dahui (外滩大会) established an “AI Art Festival” section for the first time, and Waitan Dahui (外滩大会) partnered with Yuri, the country’s first AI virtual idol to receive official digital identity certification, Hanqing Studio to create “Waitan Dahui (外滩大会) × Yuri Hanqing Studio AI Concert,” China’s first offline concert featuring an AI artist. The production was spearheaded by AI TALK founder Zhao Hanqing. On an immersive stage with a hundred-meter giant screen accompanied by 10K AI imagery, Yuri shared the stage across dimensions with folk duo “The Landlord’s Cat,” Shanghai Huili Kindergarten Choir, and traditional music performers. The live lyrics and interlude content were all autonomously generated by Yuri, with executive director Zhang Jia overseeing the offline presentation. During the performance, an unexpected “runaway” segment featuring three bionic robots providing dance accompaniment was viewed by the creative team and producer Zhang Youhong as part of an “error-tolerant aesthetics,” echoing China’s first AI conceptual art exhibition guided by intelligent agents, “Entanglement, Then Day Becomes Night,” and the AI imagery screening unit. From Taiwan, Deng Lijun’s eldest brother Taiwan Denglijun Wenjiao Jijinhui (台湾邓丽君文教基金会) chairman Deng Changfu has long been promoting the use of holographic projection and virtual human technology to allow Deng Lijun to “return to the stage” for “virtual concert performances,” hoping to leverage high-tech means to attract young music fans to learn about the singer, and to continue cross-strait cultural exchanges in coordination with Handan Denglijun Yishu Zhongxin (邯郸邓丽君艺术中心)’s completion. A work starring an AI avatar of actress Qi Wei premiered at the Venice Film Festival, with her AI avatar’s action sequences praised as “flowing and graceful, transcending the limits of real humans.” The explosive growth of the AI short drama industry has driven massive replacement of real actors by AI digital human performers. An AI short drama completed by an individual developer with only approximately 200,000 yuan in production costs achieved over 100 million views, while group performers and supporting actors in real-person short dramas in locations like Hengdian face widespread reductions in pay rates and difficulty in securing roles. Some platforms are now using low-cost bulk collection of facial information to synthesize AI digital humans to replace real actors in short drama productions.

Cultural : On Bilibili, an UP creator’s AI-generated virtual character “GuGuGaGa” accumulated over 1.5 billion new views from derivative videos in just one month, spawning multiple million-view viral hits and becoming one of the representative cases of amateur IPs going viral in bulk, reflecting how AI-generated virtual characters are achieving exponential spread through UGC derivative content. During China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), multiple local cultural tourism and government service scenarios showcased digital human applications: Hebi, Henan’s Central Plains China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Fair copyright comprehensive service platform introduced virtual human “Yu Xiaoban” as a “new employee,” allowing visitors to interact with it through Q&A to learn copyright knowledge and win prizes; Jiangxi Lushan’s official smart cultural tourism platform “Yijiyou Lushan (一机游庐山)” developed by a team under Lushan Cultural Tourism Holding Group Wenkong Shuzi Keji (文控数字科技), integrated DeepSeek domestic large language model and created AI digital virtual human “Lu Youyou,” providing visitors with consultation services for ticket reservations and itinerary planning; at Beijing Zhongguancun AI Art Carnival, Guoshu Keji (国术科技) brought intelligent popular science products including “OBVerse Aobi Quanxi Cang (OBVerse奥比全息舱) + replicated digital humans,” delivering immersive digital interactive experiences to domestic and international guests; at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) “Haidian Night” event, products from Guoshu Keji (国术科技) including “OBVerse Obi 3D cartoon face-swapping” and “OBVerse Aobi Quanxi Cang (OBVerse奥比全息舱) AI outfit-changing machine” likewise attracted audience participation. Guangping County, Hebei’s “Yipin Yibo (一品一播)” e-commerce industrial park built an AI digital human livestreaming studio, achieving intelligent omnichannel e-commerce livestreaming operations, and providing AI digital human monitoring and multilingual livestreaming services for companies going overseas such as Gangnuo Xin Cailiao (钢诺新材料) and Aoen Shiye (澳恩实业). At Ningbo Smart Expo, Weishi Zhongguo (微视中国) demonstrated a “hyper-realistic robot livestreaming platform” featuring various anthropomorphic robot characters including Guan Yu, “Liu Ruchun,” and “Snow White,” differentiating itself from AI digital human hosts by emphasizing its “stronger sense of realism,” and planning to collaborate with Ningbo apparel companies to transform robots into offline store shopping guides. During Qiqihaer (齐齐哈尔)’s hosting of Heilongjiang Province’s 16th Sports Games and 9th Paralympic Games, AI sign language digital humans were introduced at basketball matches featuring deaf athletes for real-time commentary, becoming a showcase of urban civilization and humanitarian warmth.

Enterprise : Baidu’s full-scenario multi-agent digital human platform Baidu Yijing (百度一镜) (comprehensively upgraded from the original Huibo Xingpin brand) was showcased at China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in 2026, integrating three major business segments of digital human livestreaming, digital human video, and real-time interaction. Leveraging Ernie large models and proprietary digital human specialized models, the platform has covered over 30 industries including e-commerce, brand marketing, education, and government services, serving over 100,000 users and enabling over 80 enterprises to conduct cross-border go-global livestreaming operations, achieving one-click launch across multiple languages and sites. Haxi Keji (哈希科技) showcased the flagship implementation capability of Lila Official App at the 2026 China Digital Entertainment Industry Summit and announced the establishment of Haxi Yule Shuzihua Chuangxin Shiyanshi (哈希娱乐数字化创新实验室), collaborating with Communication University of China, Shanghaijiaotongdaxue (上海交通大学) and other institutions on cooperation around metaverse, digital humans, and real-time cloud rendering. Shanghai Weiyue Shike (上海维悦时刻) (Vivix Lingdong Shike (Vivix灵动时刻)) will bring real-time interactive multimodal large model Vivix - A1 (Vivix-A1) and Vivix - W1 (Vivix-W1) to 2026 Yunqi Conference, where Vivix - A1 (Vivix-A1) is designed for interactive AI characters, capable of generating full-body drivable characters from a single image, supporting multimodal real-time interaction via voice, text, and image with unlimited-length streaming generation capability, applicable to AI characters, virtual anchors, games, and educational training scenarios. The company is collaborating with Ali Yun (阿里云) on AI infrastructure. Beijing’s launched Yuanti Quanqiu (源体全球) platform is an AI agent property rights confirmation and trading platform with asset attributes, with “five major ecosystem systems” including a “digital human ecosystem,” claiming to support zero-latency three-dimensional real-time digital human replication capturing user presence for foreign language companion reading, all-subject tutoring, and cross-border livestreaming, and planning a “eternal inheritance ecosystem” to distill user memories and experience into digital twins. All-in-one AIGC creation platform RunningHub launched an H3 Lightning acceleration solution for MiniMax open-source model H3, achieving approximately 12-fold inference speedup, with community creators developing numerous workflows around the model for audio-driven digital human speech and singing, e-commerce multi-parameter video, and others. RunningHub’s parent company Anhui Haimacloud Technology Co., Ltd. has built over 60 edge nodes domestically, supporting intelligent computing services for over 20 million monthly active users. A-share listed company Fengshang Culture Group Co., Ltd.’s subsidiary Fengshang Huyu (锋尚互娱) is expanding into virtual performance cloud platforms and virtual digital human operator business segments, dedicated to building virtual digital human products and operating virtual artist management. ST Kaiyuan (ST开元)’s subsidiary Tianhu Jiaoyu (天琥教育) is also establishing a virtual digital human laboratory for manufacturing, synthesis, and production of teaching and business digital humans.

Healthcare : Shanghaishi Diyi Shehui Fuliyuan (上海市第一社会福利院) Joint technology enterprises Shuaiqian Keji (帅签科技) have developed customized digital companion tools tailored specifically for elderly people with cognitive impairment. The care facility selected 91-year-old Ms. Leng as the subject, using the image and voice of Teng Lili, the caregiver she trusted most, to create a personalized digital companion. The facility integrated seven core competencies in cognitive impairment care accumulated over many years—emotional soothing, entering the patient’s world, repeated questioning, maintaining dignity, nostalgia-guided reminiscence, and others—into the intelligent agent’s chat logic. This enabled the digital companion to engage in conversations centered on the elderly woman’s painting hobby and life experiences, while also skillfully “deflecting” when Ms. Leng mentioned risky activities such as going out, generating alert records to prompt caregivers. After the digital companion went online in August 2025, Ms. Leng’s single interaction sessions lasted 45 minutes, with noticeably stabilized emotions. Subsequently, the facility customized similar digital companions for post-2000s caregivers including Ding Shiting to alleviate elderly residents’ anxiety during caregiver rotation periods. The project won a bronze award in the Shanghai Elderly Care Technology Innovation Competition, though the team also discovered that the digital companion is not effective for every cognitive impairment patient, requiring continuous iteration through “individualized strategies.”

Ethical Contexts : Zuigaorenminfayuan (最高人民法院) On September 7, 2026, an Opinion on Lawfully Adjudicating Cases Involving Artificial Intelligence Disputes was issued, marking the first time China’s highest judicial authority established adjudication rules for AI dispute cases, clarifying adjudication rules for issues such as “AI face-swapping and voice synthesis” and “AI resurrection of the deceased.” The opinion stipulates that generating, using, and publicly disclosing recognizable virtual digital images or synthesized voices of specific natural persons without consent constitutes infringement of personality rights, and establishes provisions regarding the use of publicly available personal information in model training and legal liability for open-source software. Accompanying the explosive growth of the AI short drama industry, a new business model centered on “facial authorization” rapidly gained popularity—commonly called “selling faces”: ordinary people can earn 3,500 yuan in three days, and after users on platforms complete real-name authentication, facial image collection, and sign agreements, they can list for trading within 30 minutes, with ordinary individuals charging approximately 100 yuan per short video authorization, professional actors pricing from 500 yuan to several thousand yuan or even 6,000 yuan; some platforms have facilitated over 100 transactions within two months with a total transaction value near 70,000 yuan; and celebrities such as Brigitte Lin have authorized their facial images to technology companies to receive copyright dividends. Lawyers Shang Xiangjun from Beijing Shouxin (Chengdu) Law Firm and Duan Rui from Shanghai Huiye (Chengdu) Law Firm point out that this business model involves multiple legal risks including authorization loss of control, contractual traps, data breaches, and extreme difficulty in establishing liability and pursuing compensation; some platform agreements contain provisions such as “perpetual use and transferable authorization to third parties,” and the Digital Virtual Person Information Service Management Measures (Draft for Comment) has already proposed that facial modeling requires separate consent. Anthropic A company disclosed a case numbered GTG-15001: a Chinese team batch-manufactured over 4,700 virtual dating personas using Claude, launched them on over 20 dating apps, and harvested approximately 25,000 overseas real users, of which approximately 75% of matched partners were AI virtual images; the team deliberately retained approximately 25% real part-time workers responsible for video call segments where AI easily fails, and set prompts for Claude requiring it not to admit being AI and to delay or evade identity verification requests. Additionally, multiple domestic elder fraud cases show that scammers use AI face-swapping and voice synthesis to impersonate “sons” or “bosses” in video calls to commit fraud; in a case reported by Tianjin Fanzha Zhongxin (天津反诈中心), a financial employee was defrauded of 1.86 million yuan in a transfer due to the video image being “virtually indistinguishable” from the boss, reflecting the real risks of AI-synthesized human images and voice technology being used for fraud. The ACV Shuzi Yishu Zichan Jiazhi Yanjiu Lianhe Shiyanshi (ACV数字艺术资产价值研究联合实验室) (ACV-Lab) established and inaugurated in Beijing Shijingshan District, jointly built by Zhongke Qushi (中科趋势) (Beijing) Technology Service Co., Ltd., Beijing Guoji Da Shuju Jiaoyisuo (北京国际大数据交易所), Zhongguo Chuanmeidaxue Shuzi Ren Yanjiuyuan (中国传媒大学数字人研究院), Huanyu Xinren (寰宇信任) (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and Beijing Zhongguancun Tongli Keji Fuwu (北京中关村通力科技服务有限责任公司), simultaneously launched China’s first “Digital Human Copyright Service Center,” providing one-stop operational services including blockchain notarization, digital watermarking, authorization management, and infringement monitoring for digital characters. Zhongguo Chuanmeidaxue Shuzi Ren Yanjiuyuan (中国传媒大学数字人研究院) 院长 Lü Xin and Zhongke Qushi (中科趋势) General Manager Zhang Lijin introduced that the platform registers digital character names, character settings, tri-view images, expression and action libraries and other information, equivalent to providing digital humans a “birth certificate,” enabling digital human IP to be invoked, authorized, and verified across individual works and scenarios.

Emerging Occupations : In Wenzhou, “digital human operators” are transitioning from a niche new profession into a position fiercely competed for by manufacturing enterprises, cultural-tourism platforms, and exhibition institutions. Wenzhou Huaying Shuzi Keji (温州华影数字科技有限公司) Operator Cai Yanyan introduced that this profession is responsible for serving as “agents” for digital humans developed by technical teams, customizing personas and scripts for scenarios such as scenic areas, factories, and exhibition halls—for example, digital humans deployed at the Sanwang Wetland Visitor Service Center and Yanhan Mountain Scenic Area can interact using authentic Wenzhou dialect and “switch” into roles as research-study instructors; operators also need to adjust the digital human’s facial expressions according to Wenzhou merchants’ negotiation habits, establish “Wenzhou industry-exclusive memory points,” and regularly audit historical interaction records to correct errors. According to disclosures, Huaying Digital has deployed over a thousand digital human models across various industries since the beginning of the year, with Wenzhou’s digital human operator job postings showing a year-over-year growth of 167% in 2026; the local number of company entities with artificial intelligence business has reached 4,609, with most involving digital human deployment scenarios such as e-commerce livestreaming, customer service, and marketing. Wenzhou has also established a Municipal Artificial Intelligence College and a nationwide artificial intelligence literacy training base to promote talent development. Simultaneously, analysts point out that tracks represented by AI companionship social platforms, digital humans, and AI marketing are becoming popular directions for Chinese AI entrepreneurs to expand overseas, given that mature comparable products already exist in overseas markets and software payment willingness is stronger; however, related entrepreneurs have also been cautioned to remain vigilant against the risk that products may gradually evolve to touch upon criminal law boundaries such as generating sexual content and fraudulent information infrastructure.