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In May 2020, Xinjiang's engagement with AI-generated virtual presenters entered the public record when Xinjiang Daily Press (新疆报业传媒集团) launched its first AI virtual anchor through the "AI主播聊两会" column, timed to coincide with the national Two Sessions political meetings. The system synthesized audio with facial expressions and lip movements from text and went live on May 22, marking the first confirmed deployment of a synthetic on-screen presenter by a Xinjiang media organization.
Two years later, in May 2022, the Hami Municipal Government introduced an immersive mixed-reality experience at the Ancient Civilization Exhibition Hall of the Hami Museum, recognized by the Xinjiang Government as China's first application of MR visualization navigation technology to museum experience terminals. Visitors wore MR glasses and interacted with a virtual narrator while exploring digitally animated historical artifacts, placing the Hami Museum among the earliest institutions in Xinjiang to deploy an embodied virtual presenter within a cultural heritage setting.
The pace of development accelerated through 2023. In May 2023, WestArea (西部空间) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xinjiang Cultural Tourism Digital Economy Development Co., Ltd. (新疆文旅数字经济发展有限公司), a subsidiary of Xinjiang Culture and Tourism Investment Group, with the partnership covering digital collectibles and cultural tourism applications across the group's four 5A-rated scenic areas — Nalati, Kanas, Grape Valley, and Jiangbulake. One month later, in June 2023, China Telecom Xinjiang and Xinjiang University's School of Journalism and Communication jointly established the Xinjiang Livestreaming Industry Research Institute (新疆直播产业研究院), with An Guinan (安贵男) as the named executive, to advance research and commercial development in livestreaming and related AI technologies across the region.
In July 2023, Xinjiang's first ultra-realistic virtual digital human made its public debut. Xinjiang Tinggongtong Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (新疆亭光通数字科技有限公司) released a promotional video on July 3 introducing "Kunlun Xi" (昆仑羲), a digital human conceived as a mythological incarnation of the Kunlun goddess and named after the mountain range anchoring Xinjiang's southern geography. Kunlun Xi subsequently featured in promotional material for the Jiangkuo Music Festival, which was held July 8 to 9 at the Xinjiang International Convention Center in Urumqi, linking a regionally grounded mythological identity to the commercial entertainment sector for the first time in Xinjiang's digital human history.
In August 2023, Urumqi hosted the First Xinjiang Asia-Europe Digital Economy Expo at the Xinjiang International Convention Center from August 28 to 30, organized by Urumqi Urban Investment Group Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Co., Ltd. (乌鲁木齐城投集团新疆国际会展有限公司) under the theme of integrating digital and real economies for a smart Xinjiang. The event brought together technology and media companies engaging with the region's broader digital transformation agenda and established an annual platform for showcasing developments including synthetic media and intelligent interactive systems.
In January 2024, the Aksu Regional Media Center and Aksu TV Station deployed AI anchor "Xiao Rui" (小芮) for routine daily broadcasting of "Aksu News" (阿克苏新闻) beginning on January 1. Unlike the Xinjiang Daily Press deployment four years earlier, which had been tied to a specific political event, Xiao Rui entered regular daily local television news broadcasting on a sustained basis, marking a meaningful threshold in the normalization of synthetic presenters within Xinjiang's regional broadcast media ecosystem.
Also in 2024, China Telecom invested eight million yuan to build the Shufu County AI Digital Human E-commerce Livestreaming Training Base (疏附县AI数字人电商直播实训基地) at Kashgar Jiangguoguo Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. (喀什疆果果农业科技有限公司) in Kashgar Prefecture. The facility included one green-screen livestreaming room, nine incubation rooms, and five AI digital human avatars, establishing dedicated infrastructure for AI-assisted commercial livestreaming in one of Xinjiang's predominantly rural southern counties adjacent to the borders of Central and South Asia.
In June 2024, the 8th China-Eurasia Expo was held at the Xinjiang International Convention Center in Urumqi from June 26 to 30. Among the technology showcases at that event, Xinjiang Guiyu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (新疆硅语智能科技有限公司), a subsidiary or partner of Nanjing-based Silicon Intelligence (硅基智能), demonstrated a multilingual digital human news anchor capable of presenting in 27 languages. The demonstration positioned AI-driven synthetic media as a practical tool for Xinjiang's regional multilingual communication needs and for engagement with the trade and diplomatic networks oriented toward Belt and Road partner countries.
In August 2024, the 11th Kunlun Mountain Canyon Tourism Culture Art Festival in Hotan premiered a new digital human named "Yi Qi" (忆琪), an ultra-realistic 3D virtual tourism recommendation officer created by Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (北京经开区) and presented in Hotan by Shang Yicheng (Beijing) Technology and Culture Group (尚亦城（北京）科技文化集团). Yi Qi debuted at the festival opening on August 22 as part of a coordinated effort by Beijing-based institutions to bring digital cultural IP into Xinjiang's tourism promotion infrastructure, with the Hotan deployment serving as a site for introducing high-production synthetic characters to southern Xinjiang's audiences.
In September 2024, Xinjiang Cultural Tourism Investment Group and iQiyi subsidiary Muxin Culture Media co-founded Xinjiang Xinlv Mujiang Digital Culture Co., Ltd. (新疆新旅沐疆数字文化有限公司) to develop the "Silk Road Adventure" (丝路奇遇记) VR immersive theater at the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi. The production featured seven main virtual characters — including Zhang Qian, Princess Jieyou, and Xuanzang — together with 22 supporting digital models and six historical scenes across 400 square meters, situating Xinjiang's Silk Road heritage within a synthetic narrative environment produced at the intersection of state-affiliated cultural tourism investment and major commercial streaming capital.
In October 2024, Changji City Media Center signed a cooperation agreement with Quanzhou Broadcasting's Wireless Quanzhou platform to establish the Quanchang Qing AI Digital Human Studio (泉昌情AI数字人工作室) in Changji, with three Changji anchors launched as the center's first batch of AI digital presenters. The collaboration was framed as part of the Fujian-Xinjiang aid program (福建援疆), channeling broadcast media technology expertise from the southeastern coastal province into Xinjiang's media infrastructure.
In December 2024, the Xinjiang Livestream E-commerce Online Year-Goods Festival (新疆直播电商网上年货节) was launched on December 12, jointly organized by the Xinjiang Commerce Department, the E-commerce Association, Talent Group, and Wuyou Media under the theme of industry convergence. The event featured a digitalized host serving as master of ceremonies, reflecting the increasing normalization of synthetic virtual presenters in Xinjiang's commercial and promotional broadcasting contexts.
In January 2025, Karamay unveiled "Xiao Ke" (小克), an AI digital police officer developed by Beijing Shiyin Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (北京识因智能科技有限公司), during the Fifth Chinese People's Police Day on January 10. Powered by the Qingzhou Large Model (轻舟大模型), Xiao Ke was deployed in Karamay to handle voice interaction, legal guidance, public inquiries, and police training functions, representing one of the first confirmed applications of an AI-driven embodied digital human to law enforcement services within Xinjiang.
In February 2025, Shihezi launched "Shi Xiaobing" (石小兵), an AI assistant developed jointly by the 8th Division Government Services and Big Data Bureau, the Digital Industry Economic Research Institute, and Xinjiang Zhitu Technology Co., and deployed on both the Shishi Ban (石时办) app and the Shihezi city government website. Built on DeepSeek R1 with a proprietary retrieval-augmented generation knowledge base covering more than 1,000 government service items, Shi Xiaobing presented as a named digital character providing intelligent guidance for public administration. Also in February 2025, China Telecom Xinjiang partnered with the Hotan Digital Development Bureau (和田数字发展局) to deploy an AI digital human government service guide system in Hotan's public service halls, built on DeepSeek, enabling citizens to navigate administrative processes with assistance from an intelligent virtual presenter and further extending the DeepSeek-driven government service model into Xinjiang's southern prefectures.
In March 2025, the Ruoqiang County Media Center launched AI anchor "Ruoyu" (若语), confirmed as Bayingolin Prefecture's first county-level AI anchor. Center director Shu Shilong commented publicly on the initiative. That same month, a March 5 report by China News Service Xinjiang provided detailed confirmation of the operational state of the Shufu County AI Digital Human E-commerce Livestreaming Training Base in Kashgar, which by that point featured a digital human anchor named "Anaerguli" (阿娜尔古丽) conducting 24-hour AI-driven product livestreams of agricultural goods, with Deputy County Magistrate Zhao Chunhui cited in connection with the facility.
In April 2025, China Daily Finance reported that Xinjiang-based dried fruit farmer known online as Guonong Laoli was using Baidu Huibboxing (慧播星) to operate a 24-hour digital human clone for commercial livestreaming, with the synthetic presenter displaying the full workflow from date harvesting through sorting as a continuous broadcast. Later that month, on April 30, the Silk Road Adventure VR immersive theater at the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar completed internal testing, with Xinjiang Xinlv Mujiang Digital Culture formally opening the venue to the public on May 1.
During 2025, 4UTech (世优科技) deployed a 3D digital human representing the Ili General (伊犁将军) at the Ili General's Mansion historical site in Xinjiang, combining the virtual character with MR technology for immersive cultural tours. The company's BOTA AI digital human agent platform (波塔AI数字人智能体) was subsequently recognized as one of 30 typical cases in the China Digital Human Development Report (2025), presented at a China Internet Association forum on December 1, 2025, affirming that a deployment rooted in Xinjiang's historical heritage had achieved national-level industry recognition.
In June 2025, Karamay's Xiao Ke system was extended into a dual-form configuration, with Beijing Shiyin Intelligent Technology adding a "digital social worker" (数字人社工) component alongside the existing digital police officer to handle community-level policy consultations and grassroots government services. The expansion was announced at the Third Digital Xinjiang Innovation Forum and marked a significant evolution of one of Xinjiang's most documented AI-driven virtual public service deployments, moving from a single-function law enforcement application toward a broader governance interface model.
In December 2025, ICBC's Kashgar branch launched South Xinjiang's first multilingual AI digital human customer service terminal, as reported by Xinhua News Agency Xinjiang. The terminal supported 37 languages and dialects, including English, Korean, Russian, and Central Asian languages, with automatic language detection powered by a large language model enabling foreign visitors to conduct account queries, foreign exchange consultations, and cross-border payment guidance. The deployment at Kashgar — a historically significant trade node connecting China with Central and South Asia — positioned AI-driven multilingual synthetic customer service as a practical instrument for Belt and Road financial connectivity, rounding out a decade-long trajectory in which Xinjiang's digital human ecosystem had expanded from a single text-to-speech media anchor into deployments spanning tourism, policing, government services, commercial livestreaming, cultural heritage, and international finance.
[Apr 2026]