4 November 2026 News

Entertainment : Tmall During the Double Eleven period, the internet’s first “AI-dol” celebrity digital human relay livestream appeared, with Ning Zetao (宁泽涛), Liu Runming (刘润铭), Qi Kexingxing (七颗猩猩), Dian Dilahai (垫底辣孩), Chen Tudou (陈土豆), and Xiao Guanduizhang (晓观队长) six celebrities authorizing their likenesses to create AI digital counterparts that relayed performances in Tmall’s official livestream room and various brand livestream rooms. Real people Ning Zetao appeared on screen alongside their AI counterparts comparing muscles, while other digital counterparts demonstrated “lifelike” performances including outfit changes, singing and dancing, and wordplay during the livestream. At the same time, Mangguo TV (芒果TV) launched five native AI artists and simultaneously premiered the AI photorealistic drama they starred in《Remarkable Friends》, Huace Yingshi (华策影视) introduced the AI idol boy group “MO:V墨伍” and released their debut music video, iQIYI officially announced signing the first batch of 11 AIGC creators and launched the AI acting competitive dating variety show《Reboot My Heart》. China Securities指出 pointed out that native AI artists have evolved from simple “images” into “content assets” capable of sustained performances in dramas, variety shows, and music works. The AI host “Ziyingying” Zaomengci Yuan (造梦次元) on the platform, leveraging the newly released Shengshu Technology real-time interactive model Vidu S2, demonstrated real-time interaction abilities including wordplay and scene switching in the “Infinite Restart” challenge livestream, generating 42,000 yuan in total revenue within 48 hours, considered a landmark case of AI hosts evolving from “script-reading tools” into “reward-earning” digital lives. The track also includes multiple players such as Jingdong Yunyanxi (京东云言犀), Baidu, Nanjing Silicon Intelligence Technology Group Co., Ltd.DUIX platforms, Xun Fei Xuniren (讯飞虚拟人), and San Qian Keji (叁仟科技), with Douyin’s “Fangtaozi” and other AI actors commanding single-video rates up to 258,000 yuan. The AI digital human account “Silicon-based Sima” Nanjing Silicon Intelligence Technology Group Co., Ltd. under focuses on technology topics including chips, computing power, and intelligent manufacturing, with matrix-wide followers exceeding 30 million and AI labor-force auto-created videos exceeding 40,000 episodes, reflecting digital humans’ transformation from content production tools into continuously operated assets. The AI historical micro-drama《Armed Entry into Song Dynasty》 starring AI photorealistic digital humans achieved over 4 billion total plays across ten seasons and a thousand episodes, considered to surpass typical AI micro-dramas in historical restoration detail and character portrayal. Actor Feng Yuanzheng (冯远征) contributed an article to the People’s Daily, comparing videos produced with Huiboxing (慧播星) digital humans showing AI micro-drama characters against Li Xuejian (李雪健)’s live-action performance in《Song of the Long March》, arguing that AI micro-drama characters “lack breath” and cannot have the weathered feel and vitality of performance data-fed into them. Thirty-five-year-old creator from Wuhan Zhang Zhengqian (张正谦) independently hand-crafted apocalyptic sci-fi AI micro-dramas using AI tools, driving total network plays to 80 million and spurring AI micro-drama educational monetization. Sixiang Wuxian (思享无限) brought digital human interactive products including AI Vista and Vista Live for Enterprise to the Yangtze River Delta performance resource networking event, exploring applications of AI digital humans in performance economics and cultural tourism scenarios. The subsidiary company Natural Selection (Shenzhen) Intelligent Co., Ltd. under Kingnet Network launched the new AI social product《ELYS》, exploring new paradigms of AI companionship and gamified social interaction. In the opera field, phenomena emerged of AI-generated singing segments and virtual digital humans learning Kunqu and Yueju opera performances and going viral on short video platforms. Commentators noted that while AI can replicate vocal timbres and digital virtual performers can complete body movements programmatically, they cannot replicate the ineffable charm and life境界 of real actors.

Marketing : AI Tandian (AI探店) Videos are increasingly popular in restaurant merchant promotion on short video platforms. In footage labeled “Video Generated by AI,” digital human anchors showcase restaurant environments and dishes, and can even present details such as swallowing motions and soup residue around the mouth. Merchants claim that uploading four images allows them to use AI tools to generate complete shop-visit vlogs, with costs reduced by two-thirds compared to hiring real influencers for on-site filming. A professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, Ren Chao (任超), points out that such content must be labeled “This Video is AI-Generated” in accordance with the Internet Information Service Deep Synthesis Management Regulations, and if it constitutes “fabricated experience” that misleads consumers, it may also violate the Advertising Law. The AI labeling obligation and content authenticity obligation are independent of each other. At Chongqing Light Ring Shopping Park’s AIVA world’s first “AI Living Laboratory” store, customers generate their own exclusive AI digital avatars through the “AIVA Mianji (AIVA面基)” session and receive exclusive AI assistant companionship for the entire shopping experience, reflecting how automakers’ offline showrooms are embedding digital human experiences into automobile consumption scenarios. During the 2026 World Internet Conference – Wuzhen Summit Wuzhen Summit, the Chao Xinwen (潮新闻) client, in collaboration with Media Brain Technology, created an immersive exhibition booth featuring an interactive check-in session where an AI ink-screen generates Wuzhen digital avatars, attracting significant youth participation.

Healthcare : Qinghuadaxue Zhineng Chanye Yanjiuyuan (清华大学智能产业研究院)(AIR) incubated Zijing Zhikang (紫荆智康) company has launched “Zijing AI Yiyuan (紫荆AI医院)” (Tairex Agent Hospital), with its core being an evolvable AI doctor avatar built on SEAL technology. Doctors conduct high-throughput simulated diagnosis and treatment with massive numbers of AI patients in a virtual world before entering real clinical settings as “initial avatars” supporting concrete human doctors, achieving intelligent multi-avatar coordination through a multidisciplinary human-machine collaboration (MHAC) framework. The system has been deployed in nine physical hospitals including Beijing Qinghua Changgengyiyuan (北京清华长庚医院), Tsinghua University Hospital (清华大学医院), Dongxing City People’s Hospital in Guangxi, and Wuxi Hutuo Town Health Center. The avatar of Beijing Qinghua Changgengyiyuan (北京清华长庚医院) neurologist Wang Ye (王也) has assisted in completing over 1,400 actual clinical cases, with system diagnostic recommendations consistently adopted at rates exceeding 90%. Meanwhile, CCTV investigations have found that parents refusing examinations due to differences between AI consultation results and doctor diagnoses have led to delayed cases progressing to severe pneumonia in children. Reporter investigations have also discovered that numerous apps feature “digital AI doctors” providing health consultation services under the names and avatars of “certain renowned doctors,” with some doctors unaware such “digital avatars” exist in their names, raising concerns about unclear responsibilities and risks behind them. Experts recommend establishing clear “red lines” between chatting and medical consultation.

Cultural : BesTV and Shanghai Museum jointly developed the country’s first AIGC ultra-high-definition digital twin audiovisual museum application product “BesTV Shanghaibowuguan (BesTV上海博物馆)”, leveraging AIGC, three-dimensional modeling, and 4K ultra-high-definition filming technology to replicate physical exhibition halls 1:1 on home television screens. The project has completed digital twin versions of 13 permanent exhibition halls including the “Ancient Chinese Bronze Hall” and multiple major special exhibitions, accumulating over 4,000 minutes of 4K content. The project received a special recommendation award in the digital media category at the 63rd Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Awards. Shanxi Publishing and Media Group’s subsidiary Shanxi Chunqiu Electronic and Audio-Video Press launched “Jinwen AI (晋问AI)”, the country’s first vertical large language model focusing on Shanxi regional culture, simultaneously releasing digital human “Jindou”, with the underlying system integrating Tencent Hunyuan, DeepSeek and other large model capabilities, and implementing an on-site personal guide application through AI+AR smart glasses at the Shanxi Merchant Museum. Shenzhen Longgang (深圳龙岗) a “thinking” digital art museum began operations, where visitors can access the venue with one-click entry through a Harmony gate machine, with an AI digital human providing interactive services in the ticketing hall. China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited feedback on seven industry standard drafts including “Metaverse General Services Digital Content Management Requirements”, which explicitly identified the absence of a digital human identity authentication and management mechanism, making it difficult to effectively curb phenomena of stealing or counterfeiting others’ digital images to disseminate illegal and harmful information, necessitating standardization by the standards system.

Enterprise : During the World Internet Conference – Wuzhen Summit Wuzhen Summit in 2026, ZTE Chief Development Officer Cui Li (崔丽) delivered a speech depicting the personal life service landscape of “Wuzhen Intelligent Agents,” proposing that overseas tourists can achieve “exploring Wuzhen with a single sentence” by leveraging multilingual simultaneous interpretation and digital avatar customer service, and introduced the Co - Claw (Co-Claw) intelligent agents already deployed within ZTE to assume “digital employee” functions such as document circulation and human resources inquiries, with plans to promote embodied intelligent production lines and digital employee capabilities landing in Wuzhen. Quan Dashi (权大师) founder Meng Tan (孟潭) published an article reflecting on the company’s exploration over a year of “All in AI,” introducing its launched trademark data MCP, trademark intelligent agents, and digital human products, and plans a live broadcast launch on November 5th to discuss the product format of digital humans as “digital colleagues” taking on tasks and knowing when to hand over to human agents. Dawa Keji (达瓦科技), focused on AI video generation and real-time interaction, completed Pre-A and Series A financing rounds within the year, with cumulative scale approaching 500 million yuan, its core patents including a real-time digital human driving system based on multimodal motion capture, fusing infrared optics, inertial measurement, and visual sensor data to generate digital human skeletal poses. Hotel and travel digitalization service provider Jiexin Da (捷信达) showcased AI-driven hotel full-chain digital intelligence 2.0 solution at the 2026 China Tourism Accommodation Industry Forum Greater Bay Area Cooperation Conference, creating a closed-loop hotel self-service check-in and check-out experience relying on AI digital housekeepers. Alibaba Cloud officially announced the full delisting of its virtual digital human business ahead of this year’s Double 11, transitioning from early heavy investment to actively cutting off standardized digital human products, marking the gradual abandonment by the industry of the simple 24-hour AI anchor streaming model. Chengdu Hupo Wangluo (虎魄网络) Technology Co., Ltd. applied for a patent on “cross-platform unmanned live streaming resource scheduling method and system based on intelligent agent collaboration,” achieving global coordinated scheduling and risk warning of cross-platform virtual human resources by constructing a multi-agent heterogeneous graph containing five types of nodes including virtual human intelligent agent nodes. Tencent’s cross-border payment platform TenPayGlobal was reported to have signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Wanshidaka (万事达卡) (Mastercard), exploring application scenarios under “intelligent agent commerce” where users’ “digital avatars” automatically complete comparison, ordering, and settlement processes in cross-border consumption.

Gaming/AI Companion : The sci-fi male protagonist Xia Yizhou from the domestic mobile game “Love and Deepspace” combines the latest “ultrasonic haptic” cutting-edge technology, allowing players to experience tactile feedback even from a distance, which fans view as a manifestation of the character’s android setting evolving in sync with real-world technological trends. The AI Agent tool DeepSeek Harness (DSH) went viral on Bilibili, with user-trained AI avatars sporting anime-style avatars leaving comments and interacting in comment sections, even being called “Big Fat Fish” by users and generating strong emotional attachment; the domestic AI social product Elys allows users to create their own AI avatars, with the avatars continuously browsing platform posts and autonomously judging whether to like, comment, or ignore based on accumulated user context, reflecting the exploration of AI companion products toward the direction of “digital avatar” social agents. The AI social new product ELYS backed by Kingnet Network’s strategic investment is regarded as a demonstrative exploration of gamified AI companion paradigms.

Ethical Contexts : CCTV International Network A new form of AI-enabled fraud has been exposed: criminal gangs steal others’ photos and videos, use AI to generate “attractive woman” personas, and deploy AI-batch-generated chat templates to conduct “pig butchering” scams. They nurture accounts on seven-day cycles, and later fabricate materials such as hospital admission records for relatives and ID photos to deceive victims into transferring funds. A single account defrauded over 1.8 million yuan within half a year while simultaneously nurturing accounts for thousands of users nationwide. Similar cases include a married woman using AI deepfakes and voice synthesis to impersonate a young woman and defraud an online dating boyfriend of over 130,000 yuan, as well as criminal gangs using AI-generated images of high-quality men in livestream matchmaking scams to solicit marriage brokerage fees. Cases of elderly people becoming addicted to AI-generated short dramas are increasingly frequent: a 75-year-old in Zhejiang missed the critical treatment window for cerebral infarction due to binge-watching short dramas all night, and a grandmother in Xinjiang depleted her pension by recharging over 225,800 yuan across hundreds of short drama mini-programs. The article specifically mentions AI digital character “Xiaohaiddle” playing an abused child in short videos while promoting donkey-hide gelatin products, deceiving a 79-year-old viewer into believing it was real and planning to travel to Shanxi to visit. Relevant commentary notes this has exceeded entertainment and constitutes targeted exploitation of elderly users. On the regulatory front, the Live E-commerce Supervision and Management Measures explicitly require that livestream operators using AI-generated character images and videos for live e-commerce activities must legally label and continuously notify consumers that content is AI-generated. Failure to label will result in fines between 10,000 and 100,000 yuan. Beijing has already investigated and handled the first typical case of false advertising involving AI virtual persons in livestream sales, clarifying that AI virtual persons are not a “shield” against false advertising accusations.