At the second Shanghai Rule of Law Culture Festival held recently, AI digital legal education became a highlight. Many netizens have expressed that under the preaching of AI digital humans, the dry laws have become more vivid.

The application of AI digital humans in the Shanghai Legal Culture Festival is not an exception. Recently, the first social security digital person in Beijing, Chaobaobao AI digital person, has been on duty, providing convenience for residents to consult on social security related matters. At the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, Jin Yong, an academician of the CAE Member, and "Qian Xuesen", a digital person, had a dialogue across time and space, which attracted the attention of the participants.

Data shows that as early as the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the concept of digital humans had already emerged. In recent years, with the advancement of technologies such as AI and virtual reality, AI digital humans have entered the fast lane of development. According to the "2024 White Paper on the Development of China's Virtual Digital Human Industry" released by third-party data mining and analysis firm iMedia Consulting in the global new economy industry, the market size and core market size driven by virtual humans in China were 333.47 billion yuan and 20.52 billion yuan respectively in 2023, and are expected to reach 640.27 billion yuan and 48.06 billion yuan respectively in 2025, showing a strong growth trend. Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com and other companies have also entered the market, and competition in this field is becoming increasingly fierce.

So, what are the new features of AI digital humans compared to the previous ones? What other challenges need to be overcome in its development? With the above questions in mind, the reporter interviewed industry experts and practitioners.

Significantly enhanced interaction ability

Digital humans are digital characters created through digital technology that resemble human images. In recent years, with the support of AI technology, the intelligent interaction ability of digital humans has significantly improved.

Zhang Hongsheng, Executive Dean of the School of Cultural Industry Management at Communication University of China, introduced that the development of digital humans has gone through three main forms: human driven, program driven, and now AI driven. Human driven digital humans, although presenting virtual digital images in front of users, still require human support in terms of language, actions, and other aspects; Program driven digital humans are based on database languages and can only provide mechanized answers; AI driven digital humans are not only closer to real humans in natural language broadcasting, but also possess powerful interactive abilities.

According to Liu Jing, the product manager of Tencent Cloud Intelligence Human, the AI digital human jointly created by the company and CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. - Interactive Intelligence Employees - can highly restore employee images through technologies such as real person image information collection, action capture, and two-dimensional modeling. It can not only support the account opening process in practical business scenarios, but also guide customers to understand the operation process, precautions, and even accurately solve the problems encountered by customers in the business processing process, with strong interactivity.

The production threshold will be further lowered in the future

"The core technology of AI digital humans covers multiple fields such as computer graphics, action capture, and image rendering. With technological iteration and updates, the efficiency and intelligence level of AI digital human production continue to improve." Liu Jing pointed out that with the support of the AI big model, the threshold for AI digital human production has been further lowered, and "self-service" production has been achieved.

In addition, by importing exclusive knowledge, AI digital humans can have a "super brain" that knows astronomy and geography, providing more accurate, personalized, and thoughtful interaction services for users in various industries.

In Liu Jing's view, an automated "AI+digital manual factory" may be the future development direction. At present, Tencent Cloud can efficiently and quickly complete a large number of AI digital human image and voice customization, and is also developing more AI digital human services suitable for vertical industries and scenarios. In the future, AI digital humans with stronger professionalism and "out of the box" capabilities may become possible.

Based on the industry to enhance the level of intelligence

Zhang Hongsheng believes that many AI digital human products on the market are still in the experimental and experiential stage, mainly to satisfy people's curiosity.

In Zhang Hongsheng's view, the application prospects of AI digital humans are not limited to dialogue with the public, and providing personalized services to users in the industry is their core value. This requires AI digital humans not only to have a more three-dimensional image, but also to conduct deep training based on universal and vertical large models to enhance their problem-solving abilities. To this end, a specialized industry corpus should be established, with a focus on training AI digital humans. Zhang Hongsheng believes that the implementation process of AI digital humans depends on the development progress of AI technology with independent intellectual property rights in China.

Liu Jing said that AI digital people need to accelerate their transformation into real productivity, creating greater value for the consumer market and enterprises. But promoting the development of AI digital humans not only relies on technology, but also requires standardized guidance. Regarding this, Zhang Hongsheng suggests that on the one hand, we should comply with market laws and promote the landing of more AI digital human application scenarios through market resource allocation; On the other hand, while introducing support and guidance policies, the government should also strengthen research and regulation on AI ethics and ethics, privacy data protection, and other aspects.

"AI digital humans cannot completely replace humans, they can only assist people in some tasks." Zhang Hongsheng said that currently, AI digital humans can handle some simple and repetitive tasks. In the future, with the advancement of large models, AI digital humans will develop towards greater intelligence, and their application scope is expected to be expanded. (Intern journalist Zong Shihan and Xue Yan)