![\"Pan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d41586-026-01674-7_52496126.jpg\"\/)
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Computer scientist Pan Hui with a digital teaching avatar used at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou.Credit: Yawei Zhao<\/p>\n
At the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, students can listen to lectures given by AI avatars that look and speak just like Albert Einstein or mathematician John Nash. The avatars can even answer students\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n
Universities are one of many settings in China where virtual avatars are being deployed. These computer-generated figures are built using artificial-intelligence tools, including video-generation models and large language models (LLMs), enabling them to speak and have conversations. Some of the first examples were digital salespeople on platforms such as the shopping website Taobao and Douyin, China\u2019s version of TikTok.<\/p>\n
More than 1.3 million companies in China offer digital avatar services, according to a 2024 Chinese government report. They\u2019re being used in health care, in education and as social companions at home, says Mengjiao Yin, a researcher studying AI and digital humans at Wuxi Taihu University in Wuxi. Although Yin hasn\u2019t yet heard of any scientist avatars working in laboratories, she thinks they are not far off. <\/p>\n
AI avatars \u2014 also called digital humans \u2014 are likely to \u201cprofoundly transform\u201d daily life and reshape every aspect of human society, says Yang Liu, a computer scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. \u201cActing as our proxies and assistants, they will take on a wide range of tasks and greatly boost productivity,\u201d he adds. But the technology behind digital humans still needs to improve, and equal effort will have to be put into developing ethical standards and frameworks for how AI avatars operate, adds Liu.<\/p>\n
With uptake so widespread, the government is trying to keep up. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country\u2019s cyberspace regulator, has released rules<\/a> for how virtual digital humans should be developed and used, which come into effect today. The regulations encourage the use of AI avatars across China, and aim to boost collaborations between academia and developers of digital-human technology. The widespread societal use of AI is a priority for China, and is part of the country\u2019s latest five-year plan for social and economic development, which was published earlier this year.<\/p>\n Streamlining health care<\/p>\n Liu is part of a team at Tsinghua University that has developed a virtual hospital simulation, called Agent Hospital, which comprises AI doctors, nurses and patients and is designed to train virtual doctors on how to tackle illnesses from diagnosis to treatment1<\/a>.<\/p>\n