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In October 2021, the South Korean company DeepBrain AI (明芒科技) publicly announced that it had signed a three-year contract with Qinghai Television (青海电视台) to develop two AI news anchors for deployment at the broadcaster's Xining premises — one male and one female — intended for news and lifestyle programming. The underlying agreement had been reached approximately two months earlier, and the October announcement came alongside a separate one-year deal DeepBrain AI concluded with Beijing Radio and Television Station. DeepBrain AI had prevailed over Sogou (搜狗), a Tencent subsidiary, in a competitive bidding process for the Qinghai contract, marking the earliest known instance of digital human technology being directed specifically at a Qinghai broadcaster.
In January 2023, Qinghai Huzhu Tianyoudé Highland Barley Wine Co., Ltd. (青海互助天佑德青稞酒股份有限公司) announced the completion of Phase 1 of its digital virtual human project, with formal confirmation published on the company's official WeChat account on January 23. The digital human was named Li Ling'er (李灵儿), and this first phase concentrated on constructing her external visual identity, comprising a two-dimensional flat graphic image and a three-dimensional character model. Her design integrated traditional Tibetan cultural elements with a modern aesthetic intended to represent Qinghai's highland barley wine heritage, and the project was powered by the Ef digital human engine, the same engine used by iFlytek Smart Creation (讯飞智作). Tianyoudé subsequently confirmed the project through investor interaction platforms in February 2023, underscoring the commercial seriousness of the initiative within the highland barley wine sector.
In August 2023, Qinghai Normal University (青海师范大学) partnered with Guangzhou Virtual Power (广州虚拟动力) to create a Tibetan-themed virtual digital human named Zhuoma (卓玛), designed as a campus publicity ambassador. Deployed for admissions promotion, short video production, event hosting, and campus cultural activities, Zhuoma represented one of the earliest dedicated virtual IP characters developed for a higher education institution in the province. The project was carried out in Xining at the university's premises, with the creative and technical work contributed by Guangzhou Virtual Power from outside the province.
In September 2024, Tianyoudé launched the second phase of the Li Ling'er project, formally titled the AI Digital Virtual Human Intelligence System (AI数字虚拟人智能化系统), with the public launch taking place on September 2. This phase combined a large-model AI foundation with Tianyoudé's proprietary knowledge base to give Li Ling'er semantic understanding, daily conversational interaction, automated question-and-answer capability, and bilingual greeting functions in both Tibetan and Chinese. The company described the outcome as giving the digital human a soul, and positioned Li Ling'er as both a cultural brand ambassador and a commercially functional asset. Tianyoudé identified itself as one of the first companies in China's baijiu industry to develop and deploy an AI digital human, and outlined plans for Li Ling'er's future use in livestream commerce, virtual customer service, and physical consumer products targeting younger demographics, all centred on the company's operations in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County, Haidong Prefecture.
In January 2025, Qinghai Broadcasting and Television Station (青海广播电视台) debuted a daily AI anchor programme titled the Qinghai News AI Morning Express (青海新闻AI早班车), with the earliest confirmed episode airing on January 5. The programme features two AI news anchors — Chang Xiaolu (常小璐), female, and Li Xiaoliang (李小良), male — who alternate in presenting each day's broadcast and are produced by the station's News Center. Each episode opens with the anchor identifying themselves by name and station before presenting that day's news, and the format has run on a continuous daily basis from its January launch onward, establishing Qinghai Broadcasting and Television Station as the province's first broadcaster to operate a fully AI-anchored daily news programme.
In March 2025, Xining's Chengzhong District (城中区) held its first AI digital human livestream job recruitment event on March 11, embedded within the 2025 Spring Wind Action and Green Computing Talent Recruitment Fair and described at the time as the first such event in Qinghai Province. An AI digital human anchor with a lifelike simulated appearance introduced ten companies and thirty-two job positions, explained employment policies, and responded to viewer questions in real time, attracting fifteen thousand simultaneous online viewers and generating sixty-two online résumé submissions alongside three hundred and five on-site registrations and two hundred and twenty preliminary job matches. By the end of the first quarter of 2025, Chengzhong District had held nine recruitment events in this format, collectively involving two hundred and thirty-eight companies offering eight hundred and fifteen positions, reaching more than fifty-three thousand cumulative online viewers, and resolving employment for one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine workers across seven key local enterprises. The district extended the programme through additional formats including an AI Night Recruitment series targeting rural migrant workers and separate campus-oriented recruitment sessions, all conducted in Xining.
In June 2025, two government digital human deployments in Qinghai went live in rapid succession. On June 20, the Xining Housing Provident Fund Management Center (西宁市住房公积金管理中心) launched an AI digital human customer-service system named Jiajia (家家), described as the first housing provident fund AI digital human smart customer service in the province and modeled on the image of a real employee of the center. Jiajia provides around-the-clock service handling the full range of provident fund transactions, including deposits, withdrawals, and loans. In a report dated June 30, Haiyan County (海晏县) in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture was described as having established an AI-plus-livestreaming employment service base that used AI digital humans for twenty-four-hour policy broadcasting and employment services. The Haiyan system features bilingual Chinese-Tibetan livestream recruitment that introduces enterprise profiles, job requirements, and salary information, and was identified as the first pilot of an AI digital human policy broadcaster within Haibei Prefecture, with the county planning to extend use of the technology into vocational guidance, skills training recommendations, and job matching.
In July 2025, an enterprise presented an AI digital human multi-scenario and multiplatform livestream management system at the Qinghai division of the fourteenth China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Also that month, technology companies operating in Qinghai produced digital human products under a Snow Leopard AI branding, including Snow Leopard-themed digital humans and accompanying intelligent mini-programs, drawing on Xining's established Snow Leopard Capital city identity as a cultural framework for the products.
In October 2025, Chengzhong District conducted an AI digital human livestream job-matching session that drew sixteen companies, attracted approximately thirteen thousand online viewers, and received one hundred and forty-five résumé submissions. By December 2025, the district had conducted nine AI-specific digital human livestream sessions over the course of the year, collectively involving two hundred and nineteen companies and generating one thousand two hundred and ninety-seven online résumé submissions.
In January 2026, Chengzhong District's AI digital human recruitment programme continued to expand, with cumulative figures reaching ten sessions, two hundred and thirty-four participating companies, seven hundred and thirty-five advertised positions, more than one hundred and nineteen thousand cumulative online viewers, and over one thousand five hundred résumé submissions. Also in January 2026, Su Jinlai (苏金来), identified as an AI trainer and head of the Qinghai Plateau Silicon Valley Science and Technology Research Institute (青海高原硅谷科技研究院), was reported to have developed snow-leopard-themed avatar tools including a Snow Leopard Digital Human product and accompanying Snow Leopard AI mini-programs, distributed through a channel named Feiyi Zhenxiang (飞翼甄享) for AI-driven content dissemination.
[Mar 2026]