28 October 2026 News

Healthcare : China’s internet giants and scientific research institutions are accelerating the integration of digital human capabilities into medical services. Ali Jiankang (阿里健康) launched “Qinglizi (氢离子)” to provide evidence-based medicine retrieval and clinical decision support, Ant Group renamed Good Doctor Doctor Edition to “Mayi Afu Yisheng Ban (蚂蚁阿福医生版)” and added doctor avatar intelligent agents, with over 2,000 doctors opening AI avatars on the platform, including 8 academicians, JD Health introduced “MedWork” to assist doctors with medical record writing, scientific research, and multidisciplinary consultations. Qinghuadaxue Zhineng Chanye Yanjiuyuan (清华大学智能产业研究院) incubated Zijing Zhikang (紫荆智康) released “Zijing AI Yiyuan (紫荆AI医院)” and multidisciplinary human-machine collaboration mechanisms, with doctor avatar intelligent agents entering actual work scenarios in 9 test hospitals in Beijing, Jiangsu, and Guangxi across 47 clinical departments, with nearly 200 doctors establishing personalized avatars for pre-consultation, multispecialty consultations, and post-discharge follow-up. Edtech company Ruiqu (锐取) demonstrated “AI private domain digital human production system” at the Chinese Medical Association Education Technology Branch 2026 academic annual meeting, serving medical education scenarios. Internet of Things enterprise Quanshitong Xinxijishu (全视通信息技术) launched an AI digital human system applied to 7×24-hour registration guidance and intelligent interaction in smart outpatient services. Wanda Information’s subsidiary Manniu Jiankang (蛮牛健康) built “Manniu Xiaojing (蛮牛孝镜)” home-based elderly care platform equipped with digital virtual human “AR Manniu Doctor,” providing online consultations and health care services for elderly people at home.

Government and Public Services : The “AI+” strategy is driving large-scale implementation of digital humans in government affairs, energy, and cultural tourism sectors. Yichunshi (伊春市) Coordinated segmented publicity lectures are being conducted, with AI digital human guidance systems being launched at government service windows to assist staff in completing intelligent pre-review and automated callback classification. Chongqingshi Nananqu (重庆市南岸区) In the ten measures for “AI+ education” in primary and secondary schools, pilot development of “scientist digital avatars” has been proposed, with each school conducting at least one AI research and study practice session per semester. Xiexin Xinnengyuan Yunying Keji (协鑫新能源运营科技) In the winning bid for Yanchengshi Qingjie Nengyuan Fazhan (盐城市清洁能源发展股份有限公司) new energy production command center platform expansion project, deployment of a 2D digital human interaction system is planned, establishing a digital employee position system covering the full process of monitoring, diagnosis, reporting, dispatching, and maintenance. Diwei Zhineng (地纬智能) Independently developed RPA+AI digital teller and digital human interpreter products based on virtual reality technology are being applied in intelligent customer service, intelligent showroom, and intelligent guidance scenarios. Hengfeng Information Technology The AI digital human “Xiaofeng” leverages multimodal perception technology to provide intelligent Q&A and decision support in political and legal affairs and social governance domains. Songmingxian Shichang Jianguanju (嵩明县市场监管局) AI virtual host “Xiaoan” was introduced in the Kangshifu ( Kunming ) Yinpin (康师傅(昆明)饮品有限公司) food safety month activity, collaborating with hosts for food safety publicity. On the cultural tourism front, the “Shandong Province Tourism Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan” explicitly supports scenic areas in deploying digital human interpreters and promoting “embodied intelligence + tourism” application implementation; at the Shanghai·Lu’an Cultural Tourism Carnival, multiple key cultural tourism projects were innovatively promoted and explained by digital humans regarding investment returns and cooperation models; at the opening ceremony of the 2026 International Wudang Tai Chi Culture Festival held in Shiyan, Hubei, AI digital human “Tai Chi Doll” made its debut as host for the first time, leaping into the air from the Golden Summit of Wudang Mountain and traveling to major global tai chi dissemination locations, becoming a digital intelligence highlight of the event. Langfangshi (廊坊市) The Zhongguo Beifang AI Yingshi Puhui Ciyuan Chuangzuozhe Pingtai (中国北方AI影视普惠词元创作者平台) created has already provided street OPC communities with demonstrations of community policy publicity digital human videos for grassroots grid members’ outreach.

Enterprise and Digital Workforce : Chinese vendors are accelerating their deployment around “digital employees” and enterprise-grade virtual human products. Kaiwu Zhi Xin Keji (开物之芯科技) released a digital employee product OpenChiip at the Super AI Agent Conference (Xi’an Station), providing engineers with AI digital avatars covering over 50 roles including frontend development, backend architecture, and UI/UX design, with its core runtime OpenChiip Harness already open-sourced on GitHub. Digital human vendor Shiyou Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. passed the 2026 specialized and sophisticated “little giant” enterprise review, with its “Bota AI Shuzi Ren Zhineng Ti (波塔AI数字人智能体)” upgraded from “capable of conversation” to “capable of taking action,” landing widely across government affairs (Fengtai District Government Service Center digital guide “Feng Xiaoshu,” Shunyi District People’s Procuratorate “Shun Xiaojian”), cultural tourism (Xinjiang Yili General’s Mansion AI digital human “Yili General”), transportation (Nanning Airport AI digital human “Gui Feifei”), and exhibition halls (ENN Group “Enniu Zhiban,” Haikai Group “Yunbao”), while its VR large-space products “Luwu Mountain,” “Journey to the West: Ape Demon Manifested,” and “Angkor’s Smile” have won successive industry awards. Social platform Soul announced the launch of an interactive AI product “Loxinity,” encompassing speech synthesis model Loxi Speech and video generation model Loxi Avatar, supporting users uploading images to customize digital human appearance and generate real-time video calls. Xiaomi Jishu Wei Chuangxin Chanpin Tuandui (小米技术委创新产品团队) released open-source AI hardware HachimoDock, allowing users to collaborate with Coding Agent through natural language to customize desktop pet virtual appearances. K2Lab, founded by former DingTalk Vice President Wang Ming (王铭), completed an angel+ round financing of tens of millions of yuan, with its product Moras targeting overseas content e-commerce creators, using AI to handle product selection, scripting, and digital avatar video generation and publishing. Consumer finance company Mashang Xiaofei (马上消费) led the formulation of IEEE Std 3826-2026 “Financial Large Language Model Technical Requirements Standard,” which was officially released, while Mashang Xiaofei (马上消费) is simultaneously driving the establishment of three-dimensional digital human modeling and driving technical requirements standard P3482 under IEEE SA leadership, with its led or co-authored standards already covering digital human and biometric identification and other cutting-edge technology fields. The global first streaming interactive video generation evaluation leaderboard StreamEval jointly initiated by Tsinghua University, Ying Weida (英伟达), and Kaneiji Meilong Daxue (卡内基梅隆大学) covers five categories of tasks including digital human dialogue and virtual human performance, with Vidu S2 - Avatar (Vidu S2-Avatar) built by domestic teams ranking first in digital human dialogue and virtual human performance tasks. iFLYTEK open platform and Qatar MBK Holding Group signed a global strategic cooperation agreement, with both parties jointly establishing AI R&D and delivery centers in medical, education, media and other fields, with iFLYTEK already demonstrating digital human services and enterprise-level AI privatized deployment capabilities to the local area.

Entertainment and Media : AI artists and AI variety shows are taking over from AI short dramas to become a new explosive point in China’s film and television industry. Huace Yingshi (华策影视) and Mango Excellent Media have successively launched native AI artists, with Huace Yingshi (华策影视)’s AI idol boy group “MO:V Mo Wu” composed of Lu Heng, Xia Mingzhe, Jiang Yichen, Lin Qiao, and ZENO, having released their first MV; Mangguo TV (芒果TV) released five native AI artists—Cheng Du, Fang Yu, Lin Enna, Qi Xu, and Zhan Yan—who starred in the AI photorealistic drama “Remarkable Friends,” jointly produced by its AIGC Innovation Content Center and Lize Yingye (丽泽影业). iQIYI announced its first batch of signed AIGC creators, and the AI acting competition romance variety show “Love Reboots” co-produced by Fanku Wenhua (凡酷文化) and iQIYI is set to launch. China’s first AI ultra-realistic theatrical film “Sanxingdui: Tales of the Future” was initiated and creatively directed by the AIGMS team, has landed in cinemas, with all characters being original digital images. On short video platforms, the AI-generated Fang Taozi gained popularity starring in the short drama “The Laid-Off Girl,” once achieving high advertising rates on the Xingtu platform, but a contact lens advertisement she endorsed was investigated by regulatory authorities for fabricating usage experiences. The AI virtual idol Nico sparked fan “collapse” controversy when its operating company diverted the same digital image from BL dramas to BG dramas, reflecting the current industry reality where AI characters’ personas can be arbitrarily reused without bearing the responsibility of real-person endorsements. Lenovo, as the official technology partner for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, has created 3D digital human visualization solutions for 1,263 participating players; gaming company Kingnet Network invested celebrity AI digital human images in game promotion and production for the first time; Fengshang Culture Group Co., Ltd.’s Fengshang Huyu (锋尚互娱) has deployed virtual performance cloud platforms and virtual digital human operator businesses, and previously collaborated with Migu Culture Technology to create the metaverse scene “J WORLD”; Hebei Guangdian Wuxian Chuanmei (河北广电无线传媒) independently developed an AI-based digital human interactive system that combines large language models to create interaction engines that can seamlessly integrate into IPTV set-top boxes, OTT, and other terminals. The television drama “Small Town Good Prescription” registered a real, searchable QQ virtual account for the character Liu Zhengliang played by Xiao Zhan (肖战), with profile information highly consistent with the character’s setting, becoming a typical case of immersive drama marketing. Actor Zhao Liying (赵丽颖) personally designed a nine-tailed heterochromatic cat virtual image named “Miao Miao Miao” during a Douyin “First AI Trendy Toy Popularity Competition” livestream, presenting its accessory elements in her livestream styling.

Marketing and Brand : Multiple A-share listed companies are expanding brand marketing through virtual digital human personas. Puyuan Cailiao (璞源材料) launched its first virtual character BO, with the Chinese name “Boling Yi,” positioned as a botanist image. Dongpeng Konggu (东鹏控股) previously launched virtual digital human “Yiming” for brand promotion. Wufangzhai (五芳斋) has rolled out virtual anchors on JD.com, Tmall and other platforms to participate in daily operations. Beijing Zhongke Jincai Technology Co., Ltd. developed a digital human content production engine based on WEB3.0 architectural rules, and achieved integration through an AIGC enterprise-grade content interactive creation platform and its metaverse digital marketing platform “Miji (觅际).” On the e-commerce front, JD.com continues to advance digital human livestreaming, JoyAI App launched the first AI digital human capable of real-time video shopping, and JD.com digital human “JoyAvatar” broadcasts around the clock, working alongside the newly upgraded AI shopping assistant “Dongdong” to provide consumers with shopping decision recommendations.

Education : Digital human forms are gradually entering higher education and publishing teaching scenarios. Zhongguoshehuikexueyuan Daxue (中国社会科学院大学) hosted a working exchange conference on interdisciplinary cooperation in publishing disciplines, where the 2026 curriculum for “China Publishing Grand Lecture Hall” was officially released. The project leverages digital forms such as course videos, intelligent agents, and digital virtual humans to break down barriers in educational resource circulation, inviting experts from units including Zhongguoshehuikexuechubanshe (中国社会科学出版社) and Tong Fangzhi Wang (同方知网) to develop accompanying long-form video courses.

Ethical and Legal Contexts : The rapid popularization of virtual digital humans in China has also triggered intensive legal and ethical controversies. Research has systematically reviewed three categories of legal risks facing the virtual digital human industry: personality rights infringement, copyright infringement, and breach of contract, and has recommended establishing a comprehensive life-cycle governance mechanism spanning design and manufacturing, data collection, contract execution, operations, and dispute resolution. On short-video platforms, batch-generated AI synthetic virtual person “Xiaohui” uniformly adopts a single-parent youth image, using “auntie-auntie” rhetoric to sell sympathy and products to middle-aged and elderly users, inducing purchases of high-margin goods such as perilla seed oil, donkey-hide gelatin, and jade pendants, even leading a 79-year-old solitary elderly person to attempt cross-province visitation of this non-existent “child”; Douyin has disposed of over 20,000 violating accounts and removed over 47,000 non-compliant short videos during specialized rectification campaigns. Numerous other accounts use AI digital persons impersonating virtual doctors, wearing white coats in operating room and ward scenarios to “diagnose and prescribe,” recommending products that are actually solid beverages or ordinary probiotics, claiming they can “cure from the root” multiple diseases. In e-commerce marketing, AI counterfeit-person advertisements have proliferated on subway light boxes and short-video platforms, Beijing Shuangtaiyuan Maoyi (北京双泰元贸易有限公司) was investigated for using AI virtual persons in live-streaming rooms to promote ordinary food products with health-preserving efficacy, marking the first case of AI virtual person live-streaming false advertising prosecuted by Beijing after the implementation of the “Live-Streaming E-Commerce Supervision and Management Measures.” Luoyangshi Xiaofeizhe Quanyi Baohu Zhongxin (洛阳市消费者权益保护中心) specifically warned in “Double Eleven” consumer alerts that certain live-streaming rooms exploit AI virtual person anchors, green-screen keying and other techniques to fabricate scenarios inducing consumption. In the automotive industry, following the “old login” controversy, an apology video released by Xiaopeng Qiche (小鹏汽车) product manager En Ta (恩塔) was questioned by netizens as possibly AI-generated, while XPeng Group Vice President Yu Tao (于涛) publicly responded that the remarks were internal banter. On the legal and judicial front, actor Wu Yue (吴越) publicly identified video account “Huajie Meifu Riji (花姐美肤日记)” as using AI cloning of his image and voice for product sales, with the account subsequently banned; Wen Zhengrong (温峥嵘), Wang Jingsong (王劲松), and Jin Dong (靳东) and other public figures have successively encountered AI voice and AI face-swap infringement. In a case heard publicly by Hangzhoushizhongjirenminfayuan (杭州市中级人民法院), Zhang Mou (张某) and Wang Mou (王某) generated dynamic videos through AI face-swapping and tampered with camera data, illegally profiting by circumventing facial recognition verification systems on shopping platforms, with the court ordering the two to issue public apologies and pay public interest damages. Relevant opinions released by Zuigaorenminfayuan (最高人民法院) clarified that using artificial intelligence to generate recognizable virtual digital images of natural persons without consent and utilizing or disclosing them, or imitating their voice timbre and tone to generate synthesized speech, all constitute infringement of name rights, portrait rights, and voice rights. The commentary simultaneously pointed out that current advertising law still contains legal gaps regarding the boundaries of AI virtual person endorsements, requiring urgent clarification.