BEIJING – After Ms Zhang Xinyu’s father died from cancer, she had an artificial intelligence avatar made that looked and sounded just like him, part of a growing “digital human” industry that China is moving to govern more tightly.
Videos featuring AI digital humans are ubiquitous on Chinese social media, with their uncanny features and smooth, dexterous motions often used to tout products.
The nation’s cyberspace regulator issued draft rules in April on how these avatars are developed and deployed, seeking to stop them from harming children, threatening social stability or being created to resemble someone without their consent.
Ms Zhang, 47, approached the company Super Brain two years ago, feeling depressed and lonely following her bereavement.
She can now converse online with her father’s avatar, something that made her feel “fully recharged in an instant and filled with motivation once again”, she told AFP.
Some friends worried Ms Zhang would become too immersed in the virtual world and “never be able to move on”, calling it a form of “false comfort”, she said.
“But even if the comfort itself is simulated, the love behind it is real,” added Ms Zhang, who is based in Liaoning province.
State news agency Xinhua reported in 2025 that the country’s digital human industry was worth around 4.1 billion yuan (S$764 million) in 2024, having grown by 85 per cent year on year.
Chinese governance of new digital technologies has always followed the logic of “develop first, then regulate, and perfect in the process”, said Associate Professor Marina Zhang, from the University of Technology Sydney.
