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Low reported severity Media Coverage

Beijing News: a student says a friend's older relative bought several high-priced orders from an AI-generated 'Xiaohai' persona's shop window

The Beijing News reported on 18 October 2026, in a follow-up to its investigation of 'Xiaohai' accounts on Chinese short-video platforms, that the accounts show AI-generated teenage boys who address older women as 'aunties and mothers' and steer them to high-priced shop windows. A university student told the paper that an older relative of a friend had been watching 'Xiaohai' videos and asked the friend why the boy was so badly off; the friend then found that the relative had already bought several orders of goods at high prices through the persona's shop window. The student made a counter-video with the same AI tools, posted on 28 September, in which the persona admits to deceiving viewers; after the friend showed it to the relative, the relative said they would not buy the persona's goods again. The amount spent and the goods bought are not reported. China National Radio's report the same day also describes the 'Xiaohai' videos as AI-generated and notes that many carry an 'AI-generated' watermark.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
2026
Reported
18 October 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Finance
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources
5 claims: 1 corroborated, 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

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

Reported harm

According to a student quoted by the Beijing News, a friend's older relative who pitied an AI-generated persona bought several orders of goods at high prices through its shop window; the amount is not reported.

Outcome

Unknown

No complaint, refund, platform action or legal proceeding concerning this purchase is reported. The relative said they would stop buying the persona's goods after seeing the counter-video, according to the student's account. The Beijing News found that several 'Xiaohai' accounts named in its 16 October investigation could no longer be found on the platform after publication.

What remains unknown

  • When the purchases were made: before the student's counter-video of 28 September 2026, otherwise undated.
  • How much was spent, what was bought, and whether any refund was sought.
  • Which account, platform and AI tool were involved, and whether the videos the relative watched carried an AI label.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Beijing News (from its own investigation) and a China National Radio reporter (from a platform search) both report that the 'Xiaohai' persona videos are AI-generated in batches by account operators and steer older viewers to shop windows; China National Radio notes that many accounts carry an 'AI-generated' watermark. The student's account connects the persona's hardship videos to the relative's pity and purchases. The persona is the AI-generated speaker the relative watched; which account, tool or platform was involved, and whether that video carried a label, is not stated.

5 claims: 1 corroborated, 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Corroborated The 'Xiaohai' persona videos on Chinese short-video platforms are generated in batches with AI and aimed at older viewers' money through sales.

Causal attribution. Two separate reporting efforts: the Beijing News investigation and a China National Radio reporter's own platform search.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '这些由AI批量生成的少年，统一是清秀乖巧、缺少母爱的大学生人设，靠一声声“姨姨妈妈”把中老年女性引向高价橱窗，部分商品佣金高达55%。'; '他们用的，正是造出“小海”的那套AI工具'
  • chinanews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '这些由AI批量生成的“假晚辈”，利用老人们渴望陪伴的心理，盯上了老年人的钱包。'; '记者在短视频平台搜索发现，让这位老人深信不疑的，正是近期在网络上批量出现的“数字人小海”。'
Reported According to a university student interviewed by the Beijing News, a friend's older relative who had been watching 'Xiaohai' videos asked the friend why the boy was so badly off, and the friend found that the relative had already bought several orders of goods at high prices through the persona's shop window.

Causal attribution. The student's second-hand account of the friend's discovery; the relative was not interviewed and no amount is given.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '朋友家的一位长辈也刷到了小海，一天把手机递过去说：“闺女，你给我看一下这个视频，他怎么那么惨？”朋友凑过去一看才发现，老人已经在小海的橱窗里，高价买了好几单商品。'
Reported The student made a counter-video with the same AI tools, posted on 28 September, and after the friend showed it to the relative, the relative said they would not buy the persona's goods again.

Causal attribution. The student's account as reported by the paper.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '他们用的，正是造出“小海”的那套AI工具'; '9月28日，这条视频发布后，收获了几十个点赞。'; '视频做好后，朋友拿这条视频给那位长辈看。'; '长辈说，“哎呀，怎么是这样的呀，我以后不买他（小海）的东西了。”'
Reported After the paper's 16 October investigation, several 'Xiaohai' accounts it named could no longer be found on the platform, and comments under remaining videos increasingly questioned whether they were AI-made.

Causal attribution. The paper's own observation of the platform after publication.

  • bjnews.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '报道刊发后，新京报记者发现文中涉及的多个“AI小海”账号，已无法在短视频平台上搜索到。'; '那些仍保留卖惨视频的账号，评论区也已变了风向——曾经一边倒的“心疼”声里，涌入大量质疑这是AI合成、提醒家人别上当的留言。'
Reported China National Radio's reporter noticed that many of the 'Xiaohai' accounts carry an 'AI-generated' watermark in the corner of their videos.

Causal attribution. Counterevidence on disclosure from one reporter's observation; whether the videos the relative watched carried it is not stated.

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Beijing News follow-up by reporter Qi Shaoqian, dated 2026-10-18 08:56 (bodies/fx-bjnews-xiaohai-1018.html/.txt). Read in Chinese on 2026-10-19 (live page, HTTP 200) and translated by the research agent (an AI); no human translator or reviewer. Applies to s1.

Chinanews publication of a China National Radio (Voice of China) report, dated 2026-10-18 (bodies/fx-chinanews-xiaohai.html/.txt). Read in Chinese on 2026-10-19 (live page, HTTP 200) and translated by the research agent (an AI); no human translator or reviewer. Applies to s2.

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

Both reports describe the persona accounts on Chinese short-video platforms and their older Chinese viewers, which places the event in China. Neither says where the relative lives, so no affected-person country is recorded.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-19: Published as a core case (communicated_with through an AI-generated persona): two independent reports establish that the 'Xiaohai' persona videos are AI-generated sales personas, and a student's account in the Beijing News describes a friend's older relative buying several high-priced orders after pitying the persona. The purchase rests on that single second-hand account and is reported.

People described

An older relative of a university student's friend, described by the Beijing News without name, age or place.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One older relative, described in the student's account (claim c2). Viewers, commenters and the 79-year-old in a separate published row are not counted here.

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#live-commerce#china

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Beijing News: a student says a friend's older relative bought several high-priced orders from an AI-generated 'Xiaohai' persona's shop window. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-older-relative-bought-several-high-priced-orders-from-ai-xiaohai-persona-shop-window

BibTeX

@misc{2026_china_older_relative_bought_several_high_priced_orders_from_ai_xiaohai_persona_shop_window,
  title = {Beijing News: a student says a friend's older relative bought several high-priced orders from an AI-generated 'Xiaohai' persona's shop window},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-older-relative-bought-several-high-priced-orders-from-ai-xiaohai-persona-shop-window}
}

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