27 September 2026 News

Cultural and Tourism : At the monthly reading sharing session of Suqian’s “National Reading 1 Plan” promotional alliance, a digital human intelligent news presenter was stationed on-site to recommend quality books to audiences across four major categories—classic literature, industry cutting-edge publications, position-specific skill books, and youth inspirational works—becoming a representative of the “AI+5G” digital reading scenario; the Tengwang Pavilion scenic area in Nanchang launched the virtual digital human “Wang Bo” to score challengers reciting the “Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion,” combined with the VR project “A Thousand Years, One Preface: Tengwang Pavilion” to recreate Tang Dynasty banquet scenes, bringing poetry from paper into reality; at the Mid-Autumn Festival night event in Hangzhou’s Qiantang District, the AI digital human “Poet Immortal” held a cup of “Xiasha Barley Whiskey” on stage reciting Mid-Autumn Festival poems, becoming a cultural symbol connecting history and the present; at the opening ceremony of the sixth season of “Wujia Night Banquet” in Wujiagang District, Yichang, Hubei, the AI virtual image “Wu Xiaoyuan” was officially unveiled, recommending food maps on-site and participating in annual dining brand awards, jointly constructing an immersive consumption scenario with intangible cultural heritage fish lanterns and Chang’e NPC interactive processions. At Diwujie Quanqiu Shuzi Maoyi Bolanhui (第五届全球数字贸易博览会), Zhejiang Fucai (浙江福彩) brought AI digital humans created under its subsidiaries IP Song Fu and Yuncolor to the expo, launching an offline public-benefit version of “Collecting Five Fortunes” interactive challenges where visitors could engage in question-and-answer interactions with AI digital humans and experience AI health screenings, transforming public welfare science education into interactive digital experiences; at the same expo, Hangzhou Liangshan Weilai Keji Wenhua (杭州两山未来科技文化有限公司) leveraged XR, AI, digital human and immersive space technologies to create the “Liangzhu Mima (良渚密码)” project, establishing a full-stack cultural tourism digital human service system from IP incubation to commercial deployment; the Heilongjiang Zhuote Artificial Intelligence Technology exhibited by the Heilongjiang delegation expanded its self-developed digital employees from 3 to 14, covering the entire marketing workflow including image-to-video generation, digital human livestreaming, and precision customer acquisition.

Entertainment and Galas : On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2026, Hunanweishi (湖南卫视) integrated the AI virtual character “Sun Xiaosheng” as the protagonist into the main program for the first time. The character originates from Mangguo TV (芒果TV)’s first AIGC long-form drama “The Journey After the West,” jointly trained and created by Zhongkeyuan Zidonghua Suo (中科院自动化所) and Mangguo TV (芒果TV). Sun Xiaosheng joined real-life singers Lu Zhuo, Yu Yan, and Huang Yubo to form a “Mid-Autumn Festival Limited Edition Band,” performing duets of “A Thousand Miles of Moonlight” and “The Moon Represents My Heart” on the Water Curtain Cave stage, and independently starred in a short film about “checking in noodle dishes across the country.” The number of the character’s on-camera appearances was pointed out by netizens to exceed those of most real-life celebrities, sparking a trending topic of “The monkey has more screen time than the artists,” with reading volume exceeding 13.3 billion. This experiment of virtual digital characters performing alongside real people, along with Yangshi (央视)’s Mid-Autumn Gala performance of the AI-assisted song “Autumn Coming and Going” by Chopstick Brothers and the all-AI short film “The Moon Shines Tonight—A Thousand-Year Encounter in the Museum,” collectively became the focus of public opinion in the 2026 Mid-Autumn season’s “AI Invasion of the Gala.” The public discourse unfolded in a polarized discussion surrounding “whether technology is squeezing creators’ living space” and “whether virtual characters can carry the emotion of reunion.” Supporters believe that AI lowers the threshold for creation and brings cybernetic romance, while critics worry that excessive on-camera appearances of virtual images will dilute the “sense of living people” and human warmth that the gala should possess.

Celebrity Digital Doubles and Licensing : Multiple Chinese celebrities have begun proactively licensing their images to AI technology companies to create digital avatars: actress Qi Wei appeared in a transparent 3D-printed dress at the Fashion Bazaar gala while launching her own AI digital avatar “Han Qingxia,” which she used in promotional materials for her new drama “The Last Midsummer”; actress Maggie Cheung licensed her appearance during her peak years from age 20 to 30 to a certain game through a three-year commercial licensing agreement valued at seven figures, with all AI-generated content requiring review by her personal team, stating “we use AI, we are not used by AI”; economist Fu Peng also launched his own AI avatar, attempting to convert more than two decades of accumulated articles, data, trading records and analytical frameworks into sustainably callable digital assets. Commentator Chen Xianyi wrote an article cautioning that entertainment professionals should exercise extreme caution when signing “face-selling agreements” to authorize AI replication of digital avatars, because once facial likeness and expression characteristics are licensed to capital and platforms for AI replication, artists will lose dominion and control over their own image, digital avatars can appear on screen at any time, and once generated content involves controversies such as vulgar or false advertising, the negative impression will ultimately still be bound to the real person.

Entertainment IP and AI Production : Late performance artist You Benchang remained focused on Ji Gong-themed content creation in his final year of life. In September 2025, he announced participation in the Ji Gong-themed micro-short drama “Ji Gong: The Fake Dragon-Taming Master” as an artistic director, explicitly expressing his hope to restore his youthful Ji Gong image through digital human technology to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1985 version of “Ji Gong.” On New Year’s Day 2026, at age 92, he also recorded a “digital Ji Gong” video to send New Year greetings to netizens, which trended widely and became his final New Year gift to audiences. Following his passing, public discourse has debated whether using digital humans to continue deceased artists’ classic roles represents memory transmission or traffic-chasing accommodation. Anhui Chuang Yao Keji (安徽创垚科技), a homegrown sci-tech innovation enterprise in Jiujiang District, Wuhu, Anhui, jointly with Yangshiwang (央视网) and Wuhushi Wenlv Tou (芜湖市文旅投) created “An Du,” China’s first red-themed AIGC live-action web short drama. The creative team has specialized in digital IP and AI content creation for over a decade and forms the core behind-the-scenes team of the hit digital human Liu Yexi. The entire short drama was completed through OneStory’s full-domain AI creation platform, encompassing the entire workflow of scene rendering, digital human performance, and intelligent voice acting. “Sanxingdui: Tales from the Future,” an AI hyper-realistic film directed by Lu Chuan, was scheduled by Bona Yingye (博纳影业) for September 1, 2026 national theatrical release. All digital characters in the film were originally created from scratch based on archaeological documentation without using any digital replicas of real actors, thereby circumventing intellectual property and digital human ethics controversies from the source. Wondershare, specializing in digital creative software, has laid out AI film and television overseas expansion through AI video creative products such as Wanxing Juchang (万兴剧厂), applying team asset library functions in multiple anime drama projects to lock digital character assets, ensuring stylistic and character consistency, and advancing the large-scale overseas expansion of Chinese AI short dramas and anime dramas.

Enterprise and Industry Applications : At Global Digital Trade Expo, the ecosystem under Jiaoge Pengyou Konggu (交个朋友控股) has productized capabilities including AI product selection, voice-over generation, digital human collaboration, and broadcast-time scheduling. Man Dasi Ke (曼达斯克) within the ecosystem has upgraded these practical capabilities into an AI marketing Agent platform targeting brand customers, combining anchor trust accumulation with AI digital human content production to create reusable content assets for brands. Freight platform Manbang Jituan (满帮集团) has showcased “stable digital humans” on Yunqi Conference, achieving full-chain automated inspection with major risks locatable within one minute at over 90% accuracy, providing a solid safety foundation for the road freight AI system. China Unicom jointly with Zhejiangdaxue Yixueyuan Fushu Shaoyifu Yiyuan (浙江大学医学院附属邵逸夫医院) and other third parties established China’s first medical AI Token factory in Hangzhou, promoting AI capability deployment to grassroots levels and enabling primary care physicians to possess expert “digital avatars,” allowing patients at grassroots facilities to access expert-level diagnostic services at any time. At the AIGC content e-commerce ecosystem closed-door conference held by Taobao (淘宝), the platform explicitly listed digital human service providers as one of the ecological roles for continued incubation, working alongside short-form drama service providers, UGC creators, and AIGC service providers to provide digital human content support for brand short-form dramas and livestreams. During the Zhongguancun Life Science Park Carnival in Beijing, a specialized digital science education master class titled “From AI Digital Humans to AI Digital Employees” was launched to educate park enterprise employees and the public on artificial intelligence and digital human-related knowledge. In financial and news broadcast scenarios, the Huiboxing Shuzi Ren (慧播星数字人) technology has been utilized by media outlets for broadcasting international financial news and sensitive security warning content, demonstrating practical applications of digital human anchors in current affairs reporting.

Ethical and Regulatory Contexts : Anthropic disclosed that a Chinese app studio used Claude to mass-produce over 4,700 AI romantic personas, operating more than 20 dating applications and completing interactions with at least 25,000 real users, generating approximately 2.36 million dialogue messages. The studio required AI to maintain assigned personalities at all times and not proactively disclose their automated nature, while configuring human freelancers to handle approximately one-quarter of interactions involving high-risk nodes such as video calls that AI cannot easily simulate. Recharge-based continuation of conversations constituted the primary monetization model, and the relevant accounts have been entirely banned by Anthropic. Chinese judicial authorities have also begun taking action against the misuse of AI virtual personas: Zhejiangsheng Yuyaoshi Renminfayuan (浙江省余姚市人民法院) concluded a case involving the production of obscene materials for profit using generative artificial intelligence, in which the defendants circumvented the foundational model through “jailbreaking” and security breaches, allowing users to engage in sexually explicit chats with AI virtual characters after recharging and generate obscene images at varying levels of explicitness. Six defendants were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from three years and one month to three years and ten months. Previously, Shanghaishi Xuhuiqu Renminfayuan (上海市徐汇区人民法院) also issued a first-instance verdict in China’s first case of an AI service provider involved in obscene content, finding that the founder of the “Alien Chat” platform committed the crime of producing obscene materials for profit through large numbers of users engaging in sexually explicit chats with AI virtual characters. A Chinese entertainment industry report released by Gaosheng (高盛) points out that as the cost of AI-generated content has declined significantly, new formats such as virtual idols, AI companion agents, and interactive short dramas are rapidly emerging in the Chinese market. However, these applications, as user retention is built upon emotional connections, are also the most prone to touching content regulation red lines, and regulatory intensity on short dramas and manga dramas is being increased accordingly.