On January 27, the Media Big Data Center of the State Key Laboratory of Media Integration and Communication of communication of communication university of China and the number one idol jointly released the "China Virtual Digital Person Influence Index Report", and the first "Virtual Digital Person Influence Index" in China was unveiled.
The report pointed out that the rise of the concept of meta-universe in 2021, the increase in demand for virtual content by Chinese people under the superimposed epidemic, the rapid development of consumer-grade VR hardware, and the development of virtual digital people have entered the fast lane. The report redefines the "virtual digital person" from the future media form and service model: computer graphics, speech synthesis technology, deep learning, brain-like science, biotechnology, computing science and other aggregation technologies (Converging Technologies) bring new space for semantic transmission and barrier-free communication, and the virtual digital people born from it will be widely used in the new ecology of the metaverse with the role of new media, and assume the responsibility of information manufacturing and transmission, which is the "person" and "person" and "person" in the metaverse "A new medium that creates a connection or twin relationship with or between things or things."
Professor Shen Hao, chief scientist of the Big Data Center of Guozhong Laboratory, served as the general consultant of the report, and he said: "Virtual digital people are gradually evolving into new species and new media, which is an important carrier and extension of the medium for human beings to enter the metaverse. ”
3 dimensions, 26 metrics Define the "influence" of virtual digital people
The report believes that in the multimodal communication system of intelligent all-media, communication, innovation and social power are the main indicators to measure the influence of virtual digital people.
When constructing the "Virtual Digital Person Influence" index, the three basic dimensions of communication influence, innovation and social force / public value are selected as the first-level indicators, and 12 second-level indicators and 26 third-level indicators are divided under the first-level indicators, and a comprehensive and specific scoring system is formed by the hierarchical analysis method to build a model and approve the weights, and the influence of virtual digital people is jointly defined.
▲"China Virtual Digital Human Influence Index" radial tree chart
In the classification of virtual digital people, the report pointed out that technology can be divided into two categories: intelligent drive and real person (medium person) drive, and the application includes three categories: identity type (such as real person virtual avatar), service type (such as virtual employee), and performance type (such as virtual idol). In terms of impact assessment, this report divides the most used and popular virtual digital people in China into three categories: virtual idols, virtual employees, and virtual anchors, and analyzes and evaluates them. "These three categories are currently the types of virtual digital people with the highest commercialization value and the strongest corporate and capital participation. With the expansion of application scenarios, the classification will be expanded and refined in the future, and the indicators will continue to evolve. Zhang Lijin, deputy leader of the research group, said.
The report shows that virtual employees have three categories: idol, service and expert, and can be used as brand officers, intelligent customer service and AI assistants of enterprises, and perform well in innovation indicators. In the AIYA column, as the first "AI virtual brand officer" launched by Baixin Bank in the financial industry, it debuted the NFT digital collection in the banking industry. With clear intellectual property rights, independent technology and digital collection applications, AIYA ranks first in the technical indicators of IP autonomy and IP innovation, and virtual idols include performance, fashion, and celebrity "virtual twins", leading in communication influence and marketing innovation. For example, Liu Yexi has a "cyberpunk and Chinese fantasy" style, ranking first in the same category in the three indexes of communication influence, innovation and social value. However, many virtual idols have not scored high on IP autonomy and technological innovation due to the problems of multi-party ownership, fragmentation, and operation of multiple parties by copyright owners, operators, and technical parties; virtual anchors present the participation of professional media and individuals (including enterprises), and the media operation virtual anchors represented by Xinhua News Agency's digital reporter XiaoYi, CCTV Xiao C, and Hunan Satellite TV Xiaoyang perform well in social force indicators, and can broadcast news at any time, anywhere, and customized, reflecting the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the media industry. However, it faces challenges in homogeneous competition and weak independent technology.
The research group also distributed the "2021 China Virtual Digital Person Influence Survey" voting and questionnaire, showing the public's awareness of virtual digital people. The voting results show that the total number of votes is 170,000+, Liu Yexi, Ling Ling, A-soul girl group ranked in the top three of virtual idols; CCTV Xinke Niang, CCTV Network Xiao C, Xinhua News Agency XiaoYi ranked in the top three of virtual anchors; Baixin Bank AIYA, Harbin Sauce, OPPO Xiaobu ranked in the top three virtual employees. The survey results show that for different types of virtual digital people, the public has significant expectations for their appearance, design, technical capabilities, and service capabilities: more than 60% of users pay the most attention to the appearance and works of virtual idols, 66% of users pay attention to the hosting style of virtual anchors, but 50% of users believe that virtual employees are most important for technical services and cross-border cooperation capabilities.
In view of the increase in the influence of virtual digital people, the report gives five suggestions: to build a multimodal communication system for all media, to create a continuous event marketing system, to excavate personalized communication content, to attach importance to social value communication, and to enhance independent innovation capabilities.
Combined with project research, industry interviews, and expert interviews, the report puts forward eight prospects for the development of the virtual digital person industry:
It is expected that the "reproduction" speed of virtual digital humans will exceed the reproductive speed of human beings on Earth in 2025.
Virtual digital people will become a new interface for human-computer interaction, carrying the immersive experience of the digital world.
Programmable virtual digital people will realize intelligent and large-scale production of content and form a new industrial ecology.
In 2030, china's virtual digital human race track will give birth to more than 10 unicorn enterprises.
AI emotion algorithms, multimodal human-computer interaction, brain-like science and other technologies have been developed by leaps and bounds driven by the virtual digital human industry.
The virtual digital human industry will give birth to new occupations such as "middle people", "technical art", and Vup, and the talent gap in related industries will reach 1 million.
Virtual employees have become standard in consumer goods, finance, real estate, property, education, cultural tourism and other service industries.
With the explosive growth of virtual digital people, the construction of a trusted digital identity governance system and a network security system is imminent, and it is urgent to establish a traceable distributed digital identity system.