AI Digital Humans Pose as Medical Experts to Advertise Products in China
AI-powered video generation apps allow merchants to create fake endorsement videos with digital humans impersonating medical professionals promoting regulated medical devices and health products in China, allegedly deceiving consumers into believing they are receiving expert medical advice and potentially causing them to forgo legitimate treatment.
What happened
An AI short-drama production company released an advertisement featuring an AI digital human claiming in first person: 'I wore contact lenses for a day and they were very comfortable,' with product links included. Contact lenses in China are regulated as Class III medical devices, the same risk level as pacemakers, artificial joints, and stents.
CCTV reporters found that low-cost mobile applications can generate AI digital human endorsement videos in minutes. Users upload a single photo, select 'product promotion video,' and receive an 8-second AI video in a few minutes for weekly fees as low as 48 yuan. The apps allow users to specify that the digital human wear medical worker clothing.
Multiple platforms display AI digital humans posed as 'medical workers' and 'domain experts' promoting eye disease treatments, hair-loss products, and health supplements. Promotional videos frequently used exaggerated claims like 'cure at the root' and displayed fake scientific experiments.
Reported impact
Experts warned that AI digital humans impersonating medical professionals create a 'negative trust amplifier' that lowers the barrier to impersonation and misleads consumers unfamiliar with AI into believing they are receiving legitimate medical advice.
One expert cautioned that patients with cardiovascular disease are at particular risk, as they may trust claims about 'dissolving arterial plaque' and stop taking prescribed medications, returning themselves to high-risk status.
Index analysis
China's Advertising Law explicitly prohibits medical, pharmaceutical, and medical device advertisements from using endorsers for recommendations or testimonies. Legal experts noted that AI digital humans can only serve as endorsers if backed by a real person responsible for their statements, and that 'native' AI digital humans with no real person behind them cannot legally endorse products due to lack of genuine experience.
The generation software used to create these videos contains no algorithmic restrictions preventing the creation of medical worker endorsements, despite the legal prohibitions.
Governance controls
Chinese legal experts emphasized that digital humans claiming personal experiences unique to real humans—such as 'this food tastes great' or 'contact lenses were comfortable'—may constitute false advertising if no real person substantiates the claim.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.