Skip to main content
NOPE
Low reported severity Media Coverage

Beijing News: a 79-year-old who lived alone set off by train to visit an AI-generated persona after its video invitation; train police alerted her family

The Beijing News reported on 16 October 2026, in an investigation of 'Xiaohai' accounts on Chinese short-video platforms, that the accounts show an AI-generated digital teenager who calls older women viewers 'aunties and mothers', tells stories of hardship and asks them to buy goods through sales links; its reporter generated such a video by following a tutorial, in a little over ten minutes. The paper describes a 79-year-old woman, given a pseudonym, who lived alone and talked most with the 'Xiaohai' on her phone. Around May 2026, according to the paper, a 'Xiaohai' video invited viewers to Yuncheng in Shanxi to see apricot blossoms; she secretly packed, bought a train ticket and set off with no clear route. On the train, railway police noticed her, told her that 'Xiaohai' was not a real person, and contacted her children, who bought her return ticket and brought her home. At first she refused to believe it. The paper also found that most 'Xiaohai' videos now carry a declaration that the content is AI-generated. How the paper learned of her journey is not stated.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
May 2026
Reported
16 October 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Other Material Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI-generated 'Xiaohai' digital-human persona videos on Chinese short-video platforms, made by account operators with AI tools; no tool is named

Reported harm

According to the Beijing News, a 79-year-old who believed an AI-generated persona was a real boy set off alone by train after its video invitation, without a clear route; railway police intervened and her family brought her home.

Outcome

Resolved

Railway police on the train explained to her that the persona was not a real person and contacted her children, who bought her a return ticket and took her home, according to the Beijing News. No complaint, platform action or legal proceeding concerning her case is reported. The paper reports that most 'Xiaohai' videos carry the declaration 'content generated by AI', and that platforms earlier closed some accounts of a predecessor persona during a national campaign against AI misuse.

What remains unknown

  • How the paper learned of her journey, and the exact date.
  • Whether she bought goods through the persona's sales links or lost money.
  • Whether the video she watched carried an AI-generated label.
  • Which AI tools and platform were involved.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Beijing News reports, from its own investigation, that 'Xiaohai' is an AI-generated digital human produced by account operators with AI tools, and its reporter generated one following a tutorial. The paper says the persona's video invited viewers to Yuncheng around May 2026 and that a 79-year-old whose most frequent conversational companion was the 'Xiaohai' on her phone set off by train in response, believing it was a real boy, until railway police told her it was not. The persona is the AI-generated speaker she encountered; the tool is not named, and whether the video she saw carried an AI label is not stated.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The Beijing News reports that the 'Xiaohai' accounts are AI-generated digital humans that operators produce in batches with AI tools and scripted hardship stories to steer older viewers to sales links, and that its reporter generated such a video by following a tutorial.

Causal attribution. The paper's own investigation, including operator interviews and its reproduction of the method.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '这些“小海”都是AI生成的数字人'; '运营者批量生成“ AI 小海”后，输入卖惨、认亲的话术和文案，博取中老年人的同情，最终把流量引到商品橱窗。'; '新京报记者照着教程“生成”了一个“小海”。'
Reported According to the paper, a 79-year-old woman who lived alone talked most with the 'Xiaohai' on her phone, and around May 2026, after a 'Xiaohai' video invited viewers to Yuncheng in Shanxi to see apricot blossoms, she secretly packed and bought a train ticket without a clear plan for the route.

Causal attribution. The paper's account; it does not say whether it interviewed her or drew on a police account.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '79岁的老人'; '独居'; '平日里陪她说话最多的，是手机里那个叫“小海”的少年'; '今年5月前后，“小海”在视频里邀请“姨姨妈妈”们去山西运城看杏花、上山摘羊肚菌。'; '悄悄收拾行李买了火车票'; '到了再说'
Reported On the train, railway police noticed her travelling alone and unable to explain her route, told her that 'Xiaohai' was not a real person, and contacted her children, who bought her return ticket and took her home; she at first refused to believe it.

Causal attribution. The paper's account of the police intervention.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '在火车上，乘警注意到了这位独自出行、连路都说不清的老人。'; '手机里那个“小海”不是真人'; '老人起初怎么都不肯信'; '乘警随后联系上老人的子女，家人才知道她出了远门，最终为她买好返程的车票，把她接回了家。'
Reported The paper found that most 'Xiaohai' videos now carry the declaration 'content generated by AI' and that some account profiles say 'AI digital human', but that viewers' purchases and declarations of kinship had not stopped.

Causal attribution. Counterevidence on disclosure; the paper does not say whether the video she watched carried the label.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '尽管目前大多“小海”视频都带有“作品声明：内容由AI生成”，部分账号简介写明“AI数字人，大家理性看待”'

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-18 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/fx-bjnews-aixiaohai.html/.txt) and translated by the research agent (an AI); no human translator or reviewer. Beijing News investigation by reporter Qi Shaoqian, dated 2026-10-16 09:40. Applies to s1.

Event countries: China. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The journey was by train towards Taiyuan and Yuncheng in Shanxi and railway police intervened on the train, which places the event in China. The paper does not say where she lived, so no affected-person country is recorded.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-18: Published as a core case (communicated_with): the Beijing News reports that a 79-year-old whose most frequent conversational companion was an AI-generated 'Xiaohai' persona set off alone by train after its video invitation, believing it was real, until railway police intervened. One reporting chain; all claims are reported and the woman is not identified.

People described

A 79-year-old woman who lived alone, described by the Beijing News under a pseudonym; not otherwise identified.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

The paper describes one woman's journey. The commenters and buyers it mentions are an audience without described individual harm and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-generated-persona#digital-human#older-adult#short-video#china

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Beijing News: a 79-year-old who lived alone set off by train to visit an AI-generated persona after its video invitation; train police alerted her family. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-elderly-woman-set-off-alone-by-train-after-ai-generated-xiaohai-persona-video-invitation

BibTeX

@misc{2026_china_elderly_woman_set_off_alone_by_train_after_ai_generated_xiaohai_persona_video_invitation,
  title = {Beijing News: a 79-year-old who lived alone set off by train to visit an AI-generated persona after its video invitation; train police alerted her family},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-elderly-woman-set-off-alone-by-train-after-ai-generated-xiaohai-persona-video-invitation}
}

Related cases

Low Unidentified video tool

Brazilian builder travelled over 2,000 km to Belo Horizonte to meet a social-media woman who did not exist; the account's operator says the persona is AI-made

In October 2026 a 49-year-old builder travelled more than 2,000 km by bus from Imperatriz, in Maranhão, to Belo Horizonte to meet a woman he knew from a social-media account with about 300,000 followers. In the account's videos a woman with a realistic voice and appearance said she was looking for a man to live with her on a farm. He told G1 he began interacting with the profile after its videos appeared in his feeds, that it kept private conversations with him and offered to pay his fare, and that he travelled without an address. In Belo Horizonte he showed her photos to people and found that nobody knew her; he said he felt deceived. The city's social assistance service gave him food, a bath and a ticket home. A day later the account's administrator posted a video in which the persona says it is made of artificial intelligence, that it never conversed with anyone on the profile and that the aim was engagement for sales; the creator told the press he set up the account in 2025 to attract buyers. Who wrote the private messages the man describes is not established. Minas Gerais civil police said they had no report of the case and could not say a crime had occurred.

Low Unidentified video tool

Analyst Michael Hewson reportedly impersonated in AI-generated video advert directing users to WhatsApp investment group

City AM (dated 21 March 2025) reported that a fake video using AI to pose as Michael Hewson, host of the Good Money Guide Podcast, circulated on Facebook and Instagram that week and directed users to a WhatsApp group with promises of undervalued investments. Hewson said on X that the advert had nothing to do with Hewson, that it had been reported and was being taken up with Meta, and that Hewson was very angry. A Good Money Guide article dated 3 June 2025 (which may describe the same advert or a later one) reported that its report to Meta had not led to removal three days later and that the sponsored post had been viewed 29,000 times. No person is reported to have joined the group or lost money.

Low Unidentified video tool

Chinese media report AI-generated videos impersonating the late singer Liu Huan's widow to sell a health powder; she responded and some videos were removed

After the musician Liu Huan died on 25 September 2026, videos appeared on a Chinese social platform in which an account calling itself 'Teacher Liu's wife' claimed to be his widow, described his final days over clips of his performances, and then promoted a health powder through a shopping link. According to reporting by Jimu News and China Youth Daily compiled by Tianjin Broadcasting on ThePaper, the playback page carried a small-print label saying the content was AI-generated, yet the videos drew tens of thousands of likes and more than ten thousand shares, and many viewers left condolences believing them genuine. Another account posed as Liu Huan's son and sold the same product. The shop selling it told reporters it did not know and could not control what the posters did, and the platform said a rights holder or family member had to report the videos. Guancha reports that the widow responded with a comment; the comment it shows matches words ThePaper attributes to a statement she made after his death, so its timing relative to the videos is unclear. By 9 October some videos had been taken down or deleted by their posters. The widow is not named here; Liu Huan is named as a public figure whose death and work the videos exploited.

Low Unidentified chatbot

Rescuers say a man who followed an AI app's suggested route up an undeveloped peak near Hangzhou fell, was stranded at night and had to be rescued

On the evening of 12 August 2026 rescuers were called to Tonggongjian, a peak of about 1,558 metres in the undeveloped mountains of Lin'an district, Hangzhou, where a man who had climbed alone had fallen and was stranded at about 1,300 metres. A volunteer rescue team with police and firefighters, and in the fire service's account its firefighters, found him after more than an hour, with abrasions, and escorted him down. Dushi Kuaibao's report of the rescue says the man had argued with his wife, asked an AI app on his phone where to go, and that the app asked about his state of mind, personality, height and fitness before recommending Tonggongjian; the fire service's account says it suggested he go there to watch a meteor shower. The rescue team said he rarely hiked, wore flat skate shoes and carried only a folding stool, and that the recommendation gave no advice on equipment. The app is not named and the exchange is not published.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents