4 October 2026 News

Public Services : During the National Day holiday period, Shanghai’s medical insurance handling institutions have arranged services where citizens with questions about policies such as maternity medical expense coverage can consult Shanghai Yibao Shuzi Ren (上海医保数字人) online to obtain answers. The digital human assumes daily service functions for medical insurance policy consultation. Meanwhile, the Zhongguorenminkangrizhanzhengjinianguan (中国人民抗日战争纪念馆) online exhibition hall is guided and explained throughout by AI digital humans, providing immersive narration for nearly ten thousand visitors during the “October 1st” period, helping audiences study documents word by word and understand historical details.

Cultural Heritage : At the tenth China Opera Culture Festival, Xinhuanet partnered with Zhongguoxiquxueyuan (中国戏曲学院) to create an AI digital human host “Xi Bao,” who collaborated with human hosts to bridge segments, breaking the boundary between virtual and reality; the event also jointly developed the Ximai (戏脉) opera AI agent to digitally collect ten years of opera resources, deploying three major interactive terminals—AI digital humans, embodied robots, and autonomous mobile vehicles—throughout the park. Huadongshifandaxue Tushuguan (华东师范大学图书馆) opened an academic workshop at the “Ten Thousand Volumes of Refined Splendor” rare books research space, where students utilized their custom-built AI digital humans to challenge themselves in identifying cursive ancient manuscripts, unlocking new reading methods for ancient literature. Fujiansheng Feiyi Bolan Yuan (福建省非遗博览苑) and other cultural tourism venues integrated digital human interactions with AR navigation and XR immersive experiences into intangible heritage exhibitions, becoming the technological foundation for a new trend of “cultural holiday leisure.” Quanguofulian (全国妇联) launched the digital human image “Lianlian,” guiding netizens in reciting Du Fu’s “Gazing at Yue” in the “Mountains and Rivers in Splendor” special feature, combining traditional poetry with thematic promotion through digital human narration.

Entertainment and Short Dramas : In Jiangxi’s micro-drama industry, AI simulation drama and digital human-driven technology have become core productivity forces. Ganjiang Xinqu (赣江新区) partnered with China Telecom to deploy a 100P high-performance computing platform that precisely supports energy-intensive scenarios such as AIGC creation, 3D rendering, and digital human operation. Jiangyou Wenhua (酱油文化) and Shike Hudong (时刻互动), among other leading AI short-drama enterprises, have produced works including “Feng Shui Heavenly Master,” “Mountains and Rivers Echo,” and “Prosperous World” by leveraging AI simulation drama and comic drama formats to create phenomena-level viewership. The AI simulation drama “Let You Achieve Enlightenment, Not Let You Soar” accumulated over 500 million views within 10 days. Broader industry data shows that among 128,000 micro-dramas launched in the first quarter of 2026, AI-generated content accounts for more than 95% of the total. Platforms such as iQIYI have already launched star-authorized AI web dramas, allowing actors to license their digital counterparts to perform in works, further blurring the boundary between live-action performances and AI digital doubles. Performing artist You Benzhang, aged 93, previously announced participation in Jiigong-themed micro-drama production and expressed willingness to use digital human technology to restore his younger image as Jigong, enabling the classic character to pass down through digital inheritance. At the Jinyingjiang (金鹰奖) awards ceremony, the production team employed AIGC technology to recreate the original voices of past classic characters “Tong Xiangyu” and “Song Ying” portrayed by nominated actors Yan Ni, Jiang Xin, and Wang Baoqiang, respectively, delivering “cross-temporal calls” in the first person and moving the actors and audiences across the internet.

Consumer Technology : Mo Xin Keji (魔芯科技) launched the “Moxiaochong (摸小宠)” application, which made its debut on Huawei Mate 90’s HarmonyOS app market. Users can upload pet photos to generate interactive 4D digital avatars with spatial structure. The application is based on a MoWorld - Flash (MoWorld-Flash) model with approximately 600 million parameters, combined with cloud-side Sheng Teng (昇腾) and Qilin (麒麟)-side computing power, realizing a full-chain workflow of “domestic computing power training—cloud generation—edge-side operation.” Company founder Chen Tianrun stated that MoWorld technology is rapidly entering multiple industry scenarios including mobile terminals, content production, embodied AI training, and industrial digital twins. Unicom Online has filed a patent application for an “audio-driven digital human expression fusion method and system,” which separates semantic and prosodic features from speech to achieve flexible and controllable lip-sync and expression editing for digital humans, solving the conflict between expression editing and lip-sync synchronization.

Sports and Urban Experiences : k1 · Tiyu (k1·体育) platform introduces AI video analysis systems, immersive virtual simulation equipment, and digital human technology into sports content production and educational scenarios, enabling coaching teams to automatically deconstruct entire matches into retrievable tactical segments. The platform further leverages digital human technology at sports culture exhibitions to recreate classic actions of legendary athletes for interactive playback by visitors. In the National Day special campaign for the Jiangsu Urban Basketball League “Su BA (苏BA),” audiences can scan codes to generate personalized “fan digital avatars” projected onto venue display screens to cheer, which together with AR real-time data projection and AI referee assistance systems form an immersive viewing experience. Hangzhou’s National Day launch of “Thirty Scenic Spots of Technology Tourism” converts innovation resources into interactive and research-oriented cultural and tourism products by leveraging Xihu " Shuzhi Danao " (西湖"数智大脑"), AI guide “Hangxiaoyi (杭小忆),” and other digital human and AI technologies. Shenzhen Huanle Gangwan (深圳欢乐港湾) debuted the “Light·Shadow New-Quality Music Concert” during the National Day period, with Bao’an cultural tourism digital human “Bay Treasure” making its performance debut, performing cross-sector on stage with virtual idol boy groups and live orchestras.

Marketing and Livestream Commerce : Mengniu (蒙牛) Group previously collaborated with digital virtual person “Naisī” to create cross-dimensional interactive livestreaming, achieving on-screen dialogue with the president, with technical support provided by Kuaishou StreamLake. JD.com livestream room once featured a digital person “Liu Qiangdong” generated in real-time by a 1-billion-parameter model suddenly appearing to promote products, described as an “unprecedented video Turing test” that sparked massive online viewership. Zhong Wang (中网) sponsor services saw relevant enterprises launch digital person intelligent customer service and volunteer intelligent memory systems at competition venues, providing support for event service upgrades. To regulate such applications, the newly revised Guangdong Consumer Rights Protection Ordinance explicitly requires that AI digital person livestreaming must carry prominent identification reminders to prevent misleading consumers.

Ethical and Regulatory Challenges : AI-generated digital virtual humans are being widely used to impersonate “doctors” in product marketing, evolving from early celebrity “AI face-swapping” endorsements of figures like Zhang Wenhong and Zhang Boli, to batch-generated “virtual doctors” requiring no real-person prototypes, dressed in white coats and positioned in clinic settings, explaining conditions in professional tones and recommending pharmaceuticals and health products. Experts point out that AI digital humans lack physiological perception yet claim in the first person that they have “personally tested and verified effectiveness,” allegedly involving the use of false identities to covertly release medical advertisements. However, due to generation tools being “indiscriminate,” lagging platform review, and blurred responsibility chains, such content continues to emerge in bulk, with regulators and experts calling for limitations on generation demands for “doctor marketing” content and the establishment of full-chain accountability mechanisms. In fall hiring seasons, multiple enterprises have deployed AI digital human interviewers that use cameras to track job seekers’ pupil movement and facial muscle physiological indicators in real time and automatically score them; their vacant gazes and stiff microexpressions trigger widespread job seekers’ “uncanny valley effect” discomfort, with related topics trending on Weibo. Hangzhou Hulianwang Fayuan (杭州互联网法院) previously handed down the first verdict in a copyright infringement case involving “virtual digital humans,” clarifying that virtual digital humans themselves do not enjoy copyright. According to a public security bureau report, a domestic application development studio operating more than twenty dating software applications mixed in thousands of AI virtual personas driven by models from Anthropic’s Claude, coordinating with real-person part-timers to handle video call segments, forming an “emotional arbitrage”-style pig-butchering fraud industry chain that, within two weeks, saw over 4,700 AI personas engaging in conversations with more than 25,000 users. In cross-strait legal circles discussions, as personalized AI agents can conduct continuous conversations based on deceased persons’ data and even generate income, whether digital doppelgangers constitute inheritable “digital legacies” or should be “powered off” by relatives as “soul replicas” has become a shared legal and ethical vacuum.