[Photo via VCG]

The HICOOL 2023 Global Entrepreneurs Summit opened in Beijing on August 25. 

"Hello, I am the digital human Yiqi. Now I will explain the talent work in Beijing E-Town..." The hyper-realistic digital human Yiqi, speaking in standard Mandarin, addressed the visiting attendees.

At the exhibition area of Beijing E-Town, the sky-blue circular halo radiated a faint purple light, and the arc-shaped exhibition area had digital technology everywhere. 

The highly realistic intelligent presenter Yiqi was generated using 10,000 facial features and behavioral patterns of young talents from Beijing E-Town.

The adjacent "Virtual Digital Human Communication Guide" provided detailed instructions on how to interact with her: If you want to communicate with me, please use the microphone next to me.

Following the instructions, the visitors challenged her with questions one after another:" What are your hobbies?" "What are the Four Great Classical Novels?" "Please introduce the talent policies of Beijing E-Town," and more. After thinking for a moment, Yiqi cleverly responded to all of them. 

Her occasional jests and comments made people exclaim in admiration. 

To the right of Yiqi was a circular digital sandbox that utilized digital twin technology. The three-dimensional modeling vividly showcased the 225-square-kilometer-large urban planning and cityscape of E-Town New Area. 

After 31 years of development, Beijing E-Town has already formed four dominant industries: new generation information technology, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, biotechnology and big health, robotics and intelligent manufacturing. 

The National Information Technology Application Innovation Park by Tongming Lake gathered over 90 percent of the country's leading information technology companies, and the biotechnology and health industry has consistently accounted for over 40 percent of the city's scale since 2016.

"In Beijing E-Town, an average of four talents settle here every hour," "1 billion yuan special fund for talent development," "Over 400,000 industry talents gathered,"... On one side, you can get an overview of E-Town New Area through the digital sandbox, while on the other side, information on talent development and ultra-high-definition live broadcasts was presented on the curved screen. 

On the tablet display screen across from the digital sandbox, there were options for visitors to learn about the talent policy system and 5G+8K ultra-high-definition slow live broadcast of Beijing E-Town.