China’s Virtual Avatars of the Dead Raise Questions

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Beijing: In China, a growing “digital human” industry is using artificial intelligence to recreate realistic virtual versions of people, including the deceased, raising both emotional and ethical debates.

One case involves Zhang Xinyu, who created an AI avatar of her late father after he died from cancer. The digital version looks and speaks like him, allowing her to hold conversations online.

She said the experience helped ease her grief and gave her emotional comfort, although some friends warned she could become overly attached to the virtual version and struggle to move on.

The technology is part of a fast-growing industry in China, where AI-generated “digital humans” are widely used on social media and in advertising. The sector is now estimated to be worth billions of yuan and is expanding rapidly.

However, China’s cyberspace regulators are now preparing new rules to govern how such avatars are created and used. The draft guidelines aim to prevent misuse, protect children, and stop the creation of digital likenesses without consent.

Experts say China has often allowed new technologies to develop quickly before introducing tighter regulation later, a pattern now being applied to AI-driven digital humans.

The industry continues to grow, but the emotional impact and ethical concerns around recreating real people through AI remain widely debated.