24 September 2026 News

Government and Public Service : Zhejiangsheng Tuiyijunren Shiwu Ting (浙江省退役军人事务厅) and Shengwei Dangshi He Wenxian Yanjiushi (省委党史和文献研究室) jointly launched the “Tracing Origins Through Walking—Mobile Ideological and Political Education Research Activity,” which for the first time deployed the retired-soldier AI digital human “Binbing,” transforming it into an online ideological and political lecturer that connects red-themed research points across five cities including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou, Jiaxing, and Jinhua, enabling teenagers to achieve immersive ideological and political education without leaving home through the “Zhejiang Province Grand Ideological and Political Course Digital Cloud Map.” JD.com unveiled mythological digital humans including Chang Xi, Chang’e, Zhinu, He Xiangu, and the Jade Rabbit performing together in the Mid-Autumn special live broadcast of “Lunar Cybernetic Gala,” and coordinated brand digital images to participate in interactive quizzes and red envelope benefits, creating a cyber reunion scenario that fuses technology with traditional culture. Zhongguo Haiyou (中国海油) introduced the AI digital human “Yun Xiaohai” at the 2026 Rio de Janeiro Oil and Gas Exhibition in Brazil to provide audiences with intelligent Q&A and multilingual interaction on China-Brazil project cooperation and deepwater oil and gas technology, while incorporating Mid-Autumn themed check-in activities such as “Bright Moon Rises Over the Sea” and “Chang’e Flying to the Moon” to enhance cultural communication effectiveness. Zhejiang Fucai (浙江福彩) launched AI digital humans “Song Fu” and “Yuncai” at the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo to interact with visitors at the booth, complemented by customized cultural creative products such as fan-shaped souvenirs and refrigerator magnets, as well as seal collection challenge activities. Beijingshi Mentougouqu (北京市门头沟区) proposed in talks with Zhongshihua Yijie Xiaoshou (中石化易捷销售有限公司) that it will leverage the district’s artificial intelligence industry foundation and employ digital human technology to empower business development in enterprise mobility services and the automotive aftermarket. China Unicom and Zhejiangdaxue Yixueyuan Fushu Shaoyifu Yiyuan (浙江大学医学院附属邵逸夫医院) jointly unveiled Yiliao AI Token Gongchang (医疗AI Token工厂) at the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, leveraging the Wuzhen intelligent computing center’s computing infrastructure to connect the full chain of medical data collection, model training, and clinical implementation, with the project also set to advance multimodal medical AI large model intelligent agents down to grassroots levels, aiming to equip primary care physicians with experts’ “digital counterparts.”

Cultural Heritage and Tourism : A Hubei Guanggu enterprise Shuming Technology led by founder Luo Biwen developed " Mark Yin " (“Mark印”) cultural creative cards that imprint museum artifacts onto postcard-sized physical cards and embed AI digital humans capable of real-time dialogue supporting 143 languages. Users can scan codes to interact with dedicated digital humans narrating stories of cultural relics such as the Sword of Goujian and the Marquis Yi Bronze Bells, while the digital human can record users’ personal experiences and transmit them between cardholders. Since the product’s launch in October 2025, within eight months global sales reached 1.9 million units with revenue of 358 million yuan. By mid-2026, cumulative sales surpassed 2 million sets, with its AI interpreters having entered over 300 museums globally including Lufugong (卢浮宫) and Daduhui Yishu Bowuguan (大都会艺术博物馆). The team is collaborating with Wuhandaxue (武汉大学) to interface with UNESCO and expand into the field of all-human civilization archives. At the second “Village Sugar Conference” held in Chengdu, organizers unveiled the “Li Bing Strolling Village Sugar” digital human IP for the first time, using digital technology to revitalize the image of Du Jiangyan’s water management figure and drive its presence into livestreams and social media, coordinating with AIIC Jiuye Chuangxin Yu Touzi Dahui (AIIC酒业创新与投资大会) and “Tianfu Precious Water” selected product launches to help rural cultural tourism upgrade from “selling products” to “creating scenarios.” At the Beijing Cultural Forum’s parallel forum on “Cultural Heritage Protection, Inheritance, and Youth Participation,” Shanxilishibowuguan (陕西历史博物馆) Social Education Director Hu Xiao introduced that the museum’s " Silu Huan Youji " (“丝路环游记”) cloud classroom launched in 2024 employs 3D modeling, virtual digital humans, and 5G livestreaming technology to transform Silk Road history into thematic content such as prosperous Tang Dynasty fashion shows and Chang’an City Walks, having directly reached nearly 5,000 young people domestically and internationally. Entertainment: AI Series and Digital Actors: iQIYI announced at the 2026 iJOY Joy Festival the country’s first fully AI ancient costume web series ⟦⟧ with official actor image authorization titled “Not Envying Mandarin Ducks, Only Immortals,” starring Shen Yuji and Chen He in their digital avatars as Huang Doudou and Lu Yang respectively. Director Wei Zheng stated the series is a “real-person performance with AI technology assistance” ultra-long thousand-minute production, with the crew using hundreds of camera arrays in Shanghai and Hengdian to capture real-person performances, while AI handles breaking through lens and scene visual limits. The series is adapted from Yuewen Jituan (阅文集团)’s novel “Who Made Him Cultivate Immortality!,” and after the trailer’s release, topics such as “AI acting better than Chen He’s attracting fans—whose credit is it?” sparked heated discussions and drove industry discourse on whether AI can replicate real actors’ microexpressions and “living presence.” iQIYI has established " Nadou Pro " (“纳逗Pro”) artist database with over one hundred artists registered using “single-project single-role” authorization rules, with Wang Zuxian and Qi Wei among others piloting AI image authorization. Tencent concurrently released “Escorting” featuring real actors with AI-generated fantasy scenes. In a cross-dimensional ancient romance series blending business intrigue and sweet romance elements, Cheng Xin Wei, playing Cheng Su Ye, transmigrates into the ancient world of Wild Wolf City and develops business and romantic storylines with Zhu Shizheng played by Wang Junhao and Wolf Prince Hack played by Zhao Junkai. The series also features a mysterious “digital virtual human” character guiding the protagonist’s actions, becoming a key highlight. ByteDance’s subsidiary technology platform BytePlus launched an enterprise-grade workstation Dramagic for short dramas, leveraging Seedance, Seedream, and OmniHuman models to streamline script breakdown, character modeling, storyboard generation, and character consistency checking, while providing AI remakes functionality to help short dramas rapidly generate overseas versions in Spanish, English, and other languages to address the industry pain point of character “face collapse” in AI short dramas. At 2026 Yunqi Conference, Alibaba (阿里巴巴) showcased Qianwen Tuxiang Moxing Qwen - Image - 2.1 (千问图像模型Qwen-Image-2.1)’s multi-image composition and local editing capabilities and Wanxiang (万相) video generation model applications in short dramas and music videos, while releasing music generation model Happy Shrimp 1.1. Xiaoxu Yinyue (小旭音乐) founder Lu Xiaoxu introduced that his six-person team operates over a dozen AI digital singers, exploring commercialization pathways in advertising, MV customization, and digital human incubation. In the domestic AI short drama industry chain, Wondershare leverages Wanxing Juchang (万兴剧厂) and Tianmu Da Moxing (天幕大模型) to provide teams with digital human footage, virtual digital humans, and virtual livestreaming capabilities. COL Group Co., Ltd. converts vast online literature IPs into AI comic drama short drama content, Tianyu Digital Technology (Dalian) Group Co., Ltd. focuses on AI virtual livestreaming and intelligent marketing short video mass production, Lanse Guangbiao (蓝色光标) undertakes AIGC marketing, AI short videos, and virtual human advertising services. Beijing Fengshang Culture Group Co., Ltd.’s subsidiary Fengshang Huyu (锋尚互娱) owns virtual performance cloud platform and virtual digital human operator business segments, having jointly created cyberpunk virtual performance scenario " J WORLD " (“J WORLD”) with Migu Culture Technology. Nuwaai’s subsidiary NuwaAI intelligent agent digital human cloud service platform debuted digital human “Li Bai” in Ganxia Ancient Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, capable of reciting Tang poetry, performing prosperous Tang elegance, and cross-genre rock singing. The activity combined interactive rewards to drive offline consumption conversion.

Marketing and Brand : Shunfeng Tongcheng (顺丰同城) officially announced a new virtual IP spokesperson “Tong Xiaoxia,” whose image is modeled after a frontline rider, dressed in black and red cycling gear and equipped with protective goggles and helmet. The character has been assigned three roles: brand spokesperson, user companion, and embodiment of rider spirit, and partners with the female image “Tong Xiaoxia” to convey the concept of “ultra-fast peace of mind” to consumers. Meanwhile, the character assumes different identities across merchant, rider, and internal employee scenarios, serving as an emotional bridge for Shunfeng Tongcheng (顺丰同城)’s diversified business. In the domestic GEO optimization service provider landscape, Lanse Guangbiao (蓝色光标)’s subsidiary Blue Universe Digital Technology functions as the core metaverse marketing business platform, building a business system around three major sectors—virtual humans, virtual objects, and virtual spaces—and possesses mature virtual IP and digital collection platform assets. It can deliver customized optimization strategies for scenarios such as virtual livestreaming, digital collection issuance, and virtual exhibitions.

Automotive : Guangqichuanqi (广汽传祺) A brand-new mid-to-large plug-in hybrid SUV Yue 7 (越7) launched in Dunhuang, featuring three virtual avatars—Panda, Crocodile Boss, and Wang Chai—embedded in its vehicle system. When the vehicle travels to new cities or landmarks, the system can automatically generate time badges to record driving locations, enhancing user interaction and engagement with the vehicle’s virtual avatars. Rongwei (荣威) Jiayue 07 (家越07) Pre-sales are now available, with the industry-first Doubao Zuocang Zhushou (豆包座舱助手) emerging as a core highlight. This assistant leverages the AICPP native technology architecture jointly developed by Rongwei (荣威) and Volcano Engine. The virtual avatar displayed on screen features facial expressions and gestures, capable of conveying emotions such as joy, empathy, and curiosity while gazing at and turning to respond to users during conversation—earning praise from users as “feeling like a real person.” It simultaneously supports multi-zone wake-free dialogue and family account long-term memory functionality.

Social and Companion Apps : Tengxun QQ (腾讯QQ) has added a new “Qiuqiuren (秋秋人)” feature in its friend interaction function, which differs from previous icon-based interaction states such as “nurturing sparks.” Qiuqiuren (秋秋人) further concretizes interactions between friends into a virtual character that is jointly cultivated by both parties and continues to grow and change, strengthening the attributes of companion-type virtual characters in social products.

Education : Soochow University Dongwudaxue (东吴大学) officially launched the “Artificial Intelligence Foresight Application Center” at its City Campus, with the inauguration ceremony co-hosted by Information Management Department Chair Huang Xinyi and virtual character “Soochow Avatar Principal Zhang Jian.” The virtual principal, which combines generative AI and holographic projection technology, engaged in interactive Q&A with guests on site and responded to inquiries about AI curricula and specialized projects. University President Chan Chien-lung stated that the center will support faculty and students in developing more virtual character applications, with students expected to develop the next Soochow Avatar through coursework and specialized project work in the future.

Enterprise and Smart Home : At the “AI Smart Future Conference and AI Smart Household Innovation Development Forum,” BesTV artificial intelligence team leader Shen Chenglei introduced the company’s practice of integrating AI into home screen services, featuring AI children’s intelligent agents with IP digital human companionship, emotional interaction, and multimodal creation capabilities, equipped with a content safety protection system, which has been rolled out in batches on Jiangsu Telecom medium-sized screen devices; BesTV also jointly developed with Shanghai Museum the country’s first digital twin large-screen online museum ultra-high-definition product " BesTV Shanghaibowuguan " (“BesTV上海博物馆”), leveraging AIGC, dynamic restoration, and intelligent interpretation technologies to achieve permanent exhibition twinning and cultural relic revitalization.

Ethical Contexts : State Administration for Market Regulation Published cases of false advertising rectification show that in an AI virtual person live-streaming sales case handled by the Changping District Market Supervision and Management Bureau in Beijing, the company involved used AI virtual persons in its flagship store live-streaming room to promote ordinary food products as possessing health-care efficacy such as “enhancing immunity and resistance,” which constituted consumer deception. The company was ordered to cease the illegal conduct and fined 5,000 yuan. This case is the first AI virtual person live-streaming sales false advertising case handled by Beijing after the implementation of the Live-Streaming E-commerce Supervision and Management Measures in February 2026, clarifying that AI virtual persons are not a “shield” against false advertising accusations. Nan Dou (南都) According to reporter investigations, the AI short-form video industry has spawned a business of making “faces,” with numerous short-form video production companies recruiting actors or ordinary people to sign portrait licensing agreements and establishing virtual character asset libraries, MCN institutions offering free authorization of influencer facial features in exchange for traffic revenue sharing, and advertising companies explicitly pricing portrait compliance licensing services. Simultaneously, large quantities of character assets traded on second-hand platforms have been generated by “face-fusing” photos directly scraped from social media users without actual authorization. Previously, AI short-form videos have been found to infringe portrait rights because characters were “strikingly similar” to well-known actors, and some short-form videos have been removed from platforms for unauthorized use and defamation of ordinary persons’ portraits. Zuigaorenminfayuan (最高人民法院) The Opinion on Lawfully Adjudicating Cases Involving Artificial Intelligence Disputes was released, establishing regulations against virtual personality rights infringement behaviors such as AI face-swapping and voice cloning. It clarifies that both AI-generated virtual digital images and AI-synthesized quasi-natural person voices, as long as they enable the public to identify specific natural persons, fall within the scope of protection of name rights, portrait rights, and voice interests, and requires platforms to establish “notice-and-takedown rules” to curb unauthorized misuse of virtual images.