AI with a human touch

Dazzle of virtual stardom

Nowadays, virtual idols have been taking online platforms by storm at home and abroad. Virtual beauty vlogger Liu Yexi made her debut on the Chinese short video app Douyin in 2021, combining elements of traditional Chinese culture with science fiction as well as cyberpunk-styled visual effects, gaining 2.3 million followers in just three days. In the meantime, virtual maiden Tianyu, who was created based on the flying apsaras — the celestial singers and dancers of the Mogao Grottoes' murals in Dunhuang in Northwest China's Gansu province — also won more than 100,000 followers and over 1 million likes for her videos on TikTok, the overseas version of Douyin.

"The development of mobile internet has provided fertile ground for virtual idols to go viral," said Shen Hao, a professor specializing in artificial intelligence at the Communication University of China in Beijing. "It is technically feasible for tech companies to create humanlike virtual beings with various characteristics, based on a young audience's preferences."

In February last year, Chinese tech giant Baidu debuted its AI digital idol Xi Jiajia — the first created using AIGC technology. It can talk and act like a human, using language, facial expressions and gestures. Xi Jiajia is equipped with eight core capabilities, including face drive, mouth drive, voice changer, PLATO real-time language interaction, makeup and dress change, as well as a machine learning-driven ability to sing, dance and livestream. It's also capable of learning and iterating autonomously in order to quickly generate content through editing, AI painting, AI composition and other formats.

During China Fashion Week last September, Xi Jiajia rose to fame in an online virtual fashion show. A group of digital models led by Xi Jiajia dressed in sports outfits in the show and strutted down the runway, presenting the latest garments of Anta Sports in different virtual scenarios — stadiums, snowfields, the Gobi Desert and even outer space. The videos garnered more than 150,000 likes on Xi Jiajia's Douyin account.

"Virtual idols could do something that ordinary people cannot do in the real world, such as time travel," said Liu Qian, general manager of AI Applications at Baidu AI Cloud. "This modern technology presented by virtual idols, including Xi Jiajia, has won the hearts of countless young people."

Liu also noted that virtual idols could avoid scandals, interact more closely with their young fans and even provide round-the-clock services.

According to Liu, young people under 30 account for 40 percent of Xi Jiajia's fan base, the majority of which live in first- and second-tier cities. "But one of our goals of developing virtual idols is to make them more inclusive so that people of all ages and walks of life can take advantage of AI technology in the future," she said.

Currently, Baidu has introduced a digital human platform named Xiling. It covers digital human generation, content production and operation services with lower costs and higher efficiency.