A Survey on the Social Application Dilemmas of Virtual Digital Humans from the Perspective of Digital Ethics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71204/v4sygw05Keywords:
Digital Human, Digital Ethics, Classification of Social Applications, Public Cognition, Supervision SuggestionsAbstract
Advances in artificial intelligence and virtual-physical integration have enabled widespread adoption of digital human technology across media, finance, healthcare, and entertainment sectors. Based on their service characteristics, social applications of digital humans fall into three categories: service-oriented, companion-oriented, and assistant-oriented. Growing intelligence, broader accessibility, expanding scenarios, and extending boundaries bring urgent ethical challenges. This study employs questionnaires and interviews to examine public understanding of digital ethics, technology adoption, social impact, and future outlook across all age groups and professions. The research identifies key issues in cognition, application, social impact, and legal regulation. Four directions emerge: fostering rational technological ethics, clarifying social and corporate responsibilities, strengthening government oversight to alleviate public anxiety, and improving laws for multi-party governance. These findings offer guidance for healthy industry development and ethical governance.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Zixuan Huang, Ruimin Wang, Wenxuan Jing (Author)

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