Tapping into new professions: Digital human trainers help AI better serve people

Editor's note: CGTN presents "New Trends," which explores new trends among Chinese people as well as their underlying causes. We focus on the impacts of China's reform and opening up, emphasizing the modernization strategies outlined by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. This era of transformation, driven by new productive forces, is reshaping Chinese people's lifestyles and daily experiences, blending tradition with innovation to redefine how they live and work.

Zhai Yujia is busy training "Guan Xiaofang," a digital human, regarding IQ and EQ to help her better observe and understand human beings, thereby having better dialogue and communication with them.

The digital girl can now comment on Zhai's outfit and sing a song as Zhai requires. "At the beginning of her training, we need to prepare hundreds of thousands of data, which includes some high-quality manual data and some basic data generated by the model," Zhai said.

"Meanwhile, we also need to design and edit the prompt word, which may have thousands of characters, including Xiaofang's personality and hobbies," Zhai said, adding that her team continues to optimize the training data to form a relatively positive cycle in turns so that Xiaofang becomes smarter and more intelligent.

Digital human trainer is a new job that has much to do with the fast development of the digital economy in recent years, where varied digital anchors and avatars have emerged.

Data from market consultancy iiMedia Research shows that in 2023, China's digital human-driven industrial market size and core market size are 333.47 billion yuan (about $47 billion) and 20.52 billion yuan, respectively, and are expected to reach 640.27 billion yuan and 48.06 billion yuan in 2025.

Fan Wei, a Chinese Academy of Personnel Science researcher, said, "We have a very large demand for technical skills in applied artificial intelligence because there are many application scenarios. Different application scenarios and different processes need a large number of applied technical skills personnel."

"It is estimated that the market need at least millions of such kinds of talents," Fan said.

Liu Xiaowei is another digital human trainer. Liu was glad to see "Qian Yan," the digital human he trained, using sign language to broadcast the daily news on television at a subway in central China's Changsha City. Liu felt his efforts to train "Qian Yan" paid off.

In Liu's opinion, digital human trainer is a new profession that helps artificial intelligence better "understand" human beings. He believes artificial intelligence is not developed to replace people but to serve human beings better.

At the second National Vocational Skills Competition in September 2022, "artificial intelligence training" was included in the competition for the first time.

"We are very excited to see that because it indicates that China's artificial intelligence industry is booming and the country is paying more and more attention to training relevant skills. We look forward to more young people joining the artificial intelligence training industry and contributing to the progress of human society," Liu said.

China started identifying digital occupations in 2022. Including new occupations in artificial intelligence, the 2022 edition of the Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China has a total of 97 digital occupations, accounting for about 6 percent of the total number of occupations.

Liu Jianjun, executive director of the China Association for Labor Studies, told China Media Group that in 2024, 19 new occupations were announced, including nine digital occupations.

In April, nine departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, issued a three-year action plan to accelerate the cultivation of digital expertise to support the digital economy. The plan focuses on the needs of the digital and relevant industries, aiming to increase the supply of skilled digital professionals from 2024 to 2026.