AI pop star Yuri gets official ID card after winning 100,000 fans
AI pop star Yuri has 100,000 fans, performs live concerts and now has official identification allowing her operators to open a digital wallet.
An AI pop star with 100,000 fans has been given official identification in China, taking the idea of a virtual celebrity into extraordinary new territory.
Yuri is not a real woman, but an AI-generated performer managed by a human team. She sings in Mandarin and English, has appeared before thousands of fans on a huge screen in Shanghai and has built a sizeable following on Chinese social platform RedNote.
Yuri can now have a digital wallet
Earlier this year, Yuri became China's first digital human to receive a government-backed Digital Artist Card through a Beijing pilot programme. Her credential includes a name, date of birth, address and facial characteristics.
The identity has practical consequences too. Yuri's operators can use it to open a digital currency wallet for her commercial activity and pursue partnerships across areas including fashion, gaming and cars.
China's digital-human industry already extends far beyond virtual singers. AI-created presenters and characters are being used across broadcasting, livestreaming, online shopping and government services, with at least 1.3 million Chinese businesses linked to the sector.
Beijing is now encouraging broadcasters and online-video companies to register their digital humans, partly to make the businesses behind them easier to identify when something goes wrong.
That creates an unusual question for the entertainment industry. A fictional performer can now have fans, concerts, commercial deals and an official identity without ever becoming a living person.
Yuri may exist only digitally, but the business being built around her is becoming very real.
