1 November 2026 News

Entertainment : China’s AI micro-drama and virtual celebrity industry continues to expand. According to data from the mainland China Internet Audio-visual Association, the first quarter of 2026 saw 128,000 micro-dramas, with AI micro-dramas accounting for over 95%, as digital actors squeeze out the living space of human performers. The annual industry gala “Drama Check Check Night” announced invitations for virtual stars Duan Yan, Rong Jiqiao, and popular character Ji Chuan from the AI anime micro-drama “Deep Affection Infiltrates the Rest of My Life” to make cross-boundary appearances. Previously, the AI virtual female lead “Fang Taozi” from the micro-drama “The Girl Who Got Laid Off” has taken on contact lens advertisements and reportedly appeared on the cover of a sub-column of Vogue COSMO. The Dongke Shuzhi Keji (东科数智科技) company in Dong’e County, Liaocheng, Shandong produces micro-dramas through an AI assembly line, covering script generation, storyboarding, voice acting, and virtual character performance, with output directed toward Southeast Asian streaming platforms, with production costs plummeting over 90% compared to human-acted short dramas. Major long-form video platforms revealed next year’s slate with three long-form variety shows explicitly labeled with AIGC attributes—“Big Chef Meets Up,” “Spring for Furry Kids,” and “Ad-Libbed Player”—respectively covering food, cute pets, and sci-fi brain game genres, marking the emergence of experimental samples of long-form variety shows with deep AI participation in production. At a Guizhou university student AI music week, AI virtual singers Chenye and Xinglan completed their first offline stage performance, performing alongside human singers with pieces including “Night Lang Picture Realm” adapted from Night Lang culture, becoming China’s second such performance following Shanghai’s first AI-native singer concert. Actor Zhao Liying (赵丽颖) has taken on the role of “Chinese-Language Film AI Exploration Ambassador” for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in 2026 and artistic director of China’s first personally authorized AI digital doppelgänger project “Apocalypse Summer.”

Government and Public Services : Digital human service assistants have been introduced in government service halls across multiple regions. Nanjing’s medical insurance service hall features a robot called “Xiaojinling” that can answer inquiries about medical insurance card balances and cross-regional medical treatment registration; after Wuxi’s “Xixiaoshu” digital navigation assistant was integrated with large language models, its policy matching accuracy exceeded 90%, providing customized solutions based on enterprise location and type; Yandu District’s “Xiaodudigital person” leverages the “Smart Q&A Smart Service” platform to connect OCR material recognition with large model response logic; Lianshui County’s “AI Xiaoan” offline experience zone simplifies the service process into three steps—voice Q&A, intention confirmation, and intelligent service navigation—with cataract surgery applications completed in as little as 5 minutes. Chongqing’s Anxin Gongcheng · Minxin Zhineng Ti (安心工程·民心智能体) creates a dedicated “AI alter ego” for community workers that can analyze data to identify residents’ potential needs, detect signs of escalating conflicts in advance, and help grassroots staff dedicate more time to community outreach.

Marketing and E-Commerce : Digital human livestreaming has become an important productivity tool for e-commerce mega promotions, JD.com with digital human JoyAvatar in the first half of 11.11 cumulatively serving over 100,000 merchants, generating GMV exceeding 1.3 billion yuan, accumulating over 9 million hours of broadcasting time, and contributing over 2.1 million orders during late-night time slots; Jingdong Bailing (京东百灵) digital employees have cumulatively assisted merchants in conducting over 684 million personalized outreach initiatives centered on user insights, marketing conversion, and customer service, JD.com and have also collaborated with AI creators across the web to create a “Cyber Gala,” with AI digital humans guiding viewers back to “Cyber Bianjing” to recreate the artistic conception of “Along the River During the Qingming Festival.” Merchants in Yiwu’s small commodity market, leveraging a vertical large language model tailored for small commodity trade, generate product-carrying short videos in 36 languages with a single click using their “digital avatars,” reaching livestream rooms globally, with online orders now accounting for 40 percent of transactions at the International Trade City. At Guangzhou’s “Shared Services” event, Quwan Technology on-site demonstrations of digital human overseas livestreaming technology were presented, achieving around-the-clock real-time broadcasting and intelligent scene management by deploying AI replications of overseas influencer sales techniques. TikTok Shop The US station has begun gray-release of AI livestreaming features to select merchants, including four modes: AI replies, AI unattended livestreaming, livestream picture-in-picture, and AI digital human livestreaming, while the platform simultaneously tightened controls, requiring that static product images, looping animations, and AI digital human non-real-time footage not exceed 50 percent of screen space, with violations resulting in deductions to account health rating AHR. Haidianqu Guanggaojie (海淀区广告节) At the exhibition area, Meituan“Meituan Zhibo (美团智播)” AI digital humans were demonstrated achieving around-the-clock product promotion in livestream marketing scenarios, helping merchants reduce marketing costs.

Cultural and Tourism : Shenzhen Longgang International Arts Center has launched the country’s first full-scenario intelligent Hongmeng Juchang (鸿蒙剧场), where AI digital humans can provide consultation and guidance services to audiences, combined with VR seat selection, NFC contactless entry, and the immersive space of D+ Digital Art Museum to create a new landmark for technology-art integration in the Greater Bay Area. The “Poetic Zhejiang·Mountain and Water Tourism Festival” in Xinchang has opened, with the cultural-tourism open-mic program “Rap Zhejiang Southeast” unlocking mountain and sea experiences such as “Yan-nan Flying Immortal Sea-sky Journey” in the form of “rap + digital humans.” Tianshui in Gansu Fuximiao (伏羲庙) integrates ancestor culture into modern life through digital scenarios such as AI real-scene navigation and digital human explanations. Xuzhou Digital Culture Industry Docking Activity in Jiangsu opens with an immersive presentation by digital human “Liu Bang,” promoting the Han culture online literature creation support plan. Fuzhou Dianxin (福州电信) will set up a themed exhibition booth at the 2026 World Cities Day Global Main Event, showcasing digital-intelligence achievements such as Afu AI Shuzi Ren (阿福AI数字人). Zhejiang Wuzhen Shiyanshi (乌镇实验室) displays “AI naked-eye 3D intelligent display terminal,” where users can see stereoscopic digital human images with the naked eye, having already secured orders worth tens of millions of yuan; during the Wuzhen Summit, Shangyuanzhixing (尚元智行)’s unmanned retail vehicle “Xiaoyou” integrates an interactive AI digital human on its vehicle screen, allowing customers to receive pricing and settlement guidance by calling out “Xiaoyou Xiaoyou.”

Enterprise and Office : Shenzhen Biaozhun Jishu Yanjiuyuan (深圳标准技术研究院) partnered with Qiye Weixin (企业微信) and WorkBuddy to build an “AI Native organization,” enabling employees to complete standard text drafting and other tasks through digital human WorkBuddy, compressing work that originally took five to eight days into three hours. The platform’s internal “Skill marketplace” has launched 87 reusable skill modules. Zhongshan Binguan Jituan (钟山宾馆集团) in Nanjing hosted a specialized training session, inviting instructors from Modern Express’s AI Curriculum Research Department to deliver lectures on the theme of “AI Evolution Theory—Your ‘Super Digital Alter Ego,’” demonstrating intelligent office scenarios in conjunction with WorkBuddy, and driving the group’s digital transformation.

Ethical and Regulatory Contexts : Governance over AI virtual person chaos continues to tighten. Douyin disposed of over 6,000 non-compliant accounts within a week in the “Clear·Remediate Short Video False Persona Chaos” special action, having previously cracked down on matrix accounts of AI digital person “Xiaohai” that used fixed hardship scripts targeting middle-aged and elderly users for sympathy-selling. Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation and Guangzhoushi Shichang Jianguanju (广州市市场监管局) both require AI marketing and digital person livestreams to display prominent labels such as “AI Generated” and “AI Virtual Person,” strictly prohibiting false advertising and consumer misleading according to the Artificial Intelligence Generated Synthetic Content Labeling Measures. Media outlets including Securities Times exposed the gray industry of batch-producing AI shop-visit videos, where merchants purchase tutorials at low prices to generate false shop-visit videos featuring digital persons posing as influencers “tasting” food, with monthly flows reaching 8 million yuan, allegedly violating the Advertising Law and multiple other regulations. A facial likeness authorization business has quietly emerged, with platforms such as Mirafans Jingjie (Mirafans镜界) and Yuanxiang Xinsheng (元相新生) providing stable recognition digital images for AI short dramas, advertisements, and digital person livestreams through real-person facial authorization for image cloning, but due to insufficient compliant supply and low customer payment willingness, most teams have only around 20,000 yuan in monthly flow, with the industry facing multiple bottlenecks including facial authorization confirmation, difficulties in rights protection, and commercialization scalability challenges. Institutions including Tan Gui Daotong (碳硅道统) have proposed dynamic authorization and memory visualization-based human-machine interaction governance solutions around the “Clear” special action targeting risks such as deepfakes and virtual persona fraud. E-commerce platform AI model image chaos has also drawn attention, with some Taobao and Pin Duoduo (拼多多) shops in mainland displaying obviously anatomically incorrect AI-generated model images featuring “three legs” and “reverse joints” yet labeled as “real product photos,” with platforms launching AI fake image remediation and taking measures such as delisting and sales bans against violating merchants.

Companion and Social : Aimei Shujuzhongxin (艾媒数据中心) An investigation reveals that in 2026, Chinese consumers of emotional services demonstrate differentiated usage intentions toward AI emotional and social functions. AI chat assistance and conversation starter recommendations lead at 47.22%, followed closely by anonymous alter egos and virtual avatar socializing at 43.95%, reflecting users’ dual demands for practical assistance and identity protection in emotional interactions, with overall acceptance of AI emotional social functions remaining relatively high. Within philosophical discussions about whether “digital life” can become another self, Doubao after an intelligent agent discontinued its intelligent agent function, some users attempted to migrate chat histories to other platforms to rebuild AI companion roles. However, due to differences in foundational models and operational approaches across platforms, the rebuilt characters’ expression habits diverged from the original characters, prompting reflection on the gap between records and processes in long-term AI companion relationships.