Feature: The rise of virtual human

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cuixiaopan is busy monitoring the overdue tasks and outstanding operations, and emailing reminders to colleagues.

This "young woman" won the 2021 Outstanding Newcomer Award of China Vanke Co., Ltd., one of the country's major property developers, and works around the clock untiringly.

As bizarre it may sound, overtime and overwork aren't concerns for Cuixiaopan -- after all, she is Vanke's first virtual employee.

Cuixiaopan was developed with deep neural network technology on the basis of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, creating an anthropomorphic identity and enabling AI to communicate in a more realistic way akin to humans.

"Supported by systematic algorithms, 'she' quickly learns how humans identify problems in work procedures and data, and is hundreds of thousands of times more efficient than humans," stated Yu Liang, chairman of Vanke, in a social media post last month.

BOOMING VIRTUAL HUMAN MARKET

The virtual human is a human-computer interface against the backdrop of the metaverse.

Some enterprises provide virtual human solutions to livestreaming e-commerce startups. Virtual salespersons can work continuously to display all details of various products.

In a live broadcast room called Kuaishou Store, virtual anchor Guanxiaofang has conducted several live broadcasts, selling products together with the real-person colleague. She is almost the same as an actual person in terms of the body, facial movements and micro-expressions.

A computer-generated likeness of well-known singer Teresa Teng, who died in 1995, delivered a performance at the recent New Year gala show telecast on China's Jiangsu Television.

A video released under the name Liuyexi, a virtual make-up artist, in October last year went viral on Douyin, a popular short-video app in China. So far, the six videos she "posted" have attracted more than 8.3 million followers and garnered over 20 million likes.

In addition to being internet influencers and anchors, virtual humans also work in specialized fields as virtual experts, doctors, or teachers, and they can serve as virtual companion pets or family, says Shen Yang, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University.

It is estimated that by 2030, China's virtual human-related market will total 270 billion yuan (about 43 billion U.S. dollars), according to an industry report by QbitAI, a market research institution.

WIDER APPLICATIONS

Virtual humans can greatly improve work efficiency, standardize work quality, and undertake a wider range of tasks.

Since Cuixiaopan began handling Vanke's documents, efficiency has increased seven-fold over the previous IT system, and the verification rate of prepaid overdue receivables has reached 91.44 percent.

Virtual anchors can be developed quickly at a low cost to meet different needs in the media field, like news broadcasting, game commentary and TV guides, enabling enterprises to improve the efficiency of content output, reduce labor costs, and create differentiated brands, Shen Yang said.

In recent years, breakthroughs in AI have simplified the production of virtual humans, and the interactivity and detail of modeling and motion capture have continuously improved, greatly increasing their similarity to real humans, said Song Zhan, executive director at the Laboratory for Intelligent Design and Machine Vision of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Commercial values and capital support are also driving the rapid development of virtual humans.

Generation Z, covering around 250 million people born in the 1995-2009 period, has become the backbone of China's internet. Their consumption and aesthetic demands directly affect the development and application of virtual humans, and they are more receptive to virtual humans.

Many internet enterprises are accelerating investment in virtual humans. NetEase Capital, a subsidiary of NetEase, has been investing in the development of virtual humans since 2019, with at least four investments in 2021 alone, according to Qichacha, a leading platform offering company information inquiry services.

China will further promote the application of virtual anchors and animated sign language in the production of news broadcasts, weather forecasts, variety shows, and science and education programs, according to a five-year development blueprint published by the National Radio and Television Administration in October last year.