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- China’s film and video industry is in the midst of an AI revolution, and at ground zero are the micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones.
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that → click → smartphones
- The AI trends upending China’s entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what’s to come in Hollywood.
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what → upend → Hollywood
Chen Yilong has racked up plenty of film and TV credits in his two decades as an actor, but with work getting scarcer he signed a contract in August to license the image of his face to a Chinese production studio.
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he → rack → studio
Chen’s role will be to sit in front of a video camera and make facial expressions at the prompt of a director.
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role → sit → director
Using artificial intelligence, the studio will use images of Chen’s face to generate an avatar, also known as a “digital human,” to star in an AI-generated movie.
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studio → use → movie
“If you can’t beat it, join it,” said Chen, 38, who works in Beijing.
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who → beat → Beijing
The Chinese film and video industry is being transformed by AI-driven storytelling, fueled by rapid advances in video generation software, and at ground zero are the so-called micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones.
The former majority owner of TikTok has quietly continued to court filmmakers, independent artists and executives who are eager to learn more about the AI video generation model called Seedance.
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who → transform → model
Typically just a minute or two in length, the videos are devoured by Chinese audiences at breakfast, on their morning commutes, during their lunch breaks and on their free time after work — and almost any time in between.
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videos → devour → between
More of a snack than a meal, micro dramas are fleeting and don’t demand the same top-notch acting and high quality resolution as movies, making them an ideal vehicle for AI-generated content.
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them → demand → content
And the cost of producing them has been cut drastically through the use of AI software developed by Chinese technology juggernauts including Kuaishou Technology and TikTok’s global owner, ByteDance.
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cost → produce → Technology
The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn.
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number → make → Assn
More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said.
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association → make → AI
Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China’s entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what’s to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA.
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Berry → test → UCLA
Already, Chinese companies that sell AI-powered video-generation software are seeking inroads in Hollywood.
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that → sell → Hollywood
Earlier this year, ByteDance (now a minority owner in its U.S. TikTok unit) showcased its Seedance video platform at a splashy event in Santa Monica.
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ByteDance → showcase → Monica
Other Chinese companies with global ambitions include Alibaba’s HappyHorse and Kuaishou subsidiary Kling.
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companies → include → HappyHorse
AI allows anyone with a laptop to produce entertainment, which means Americans could soon find themselves consuming content created by Chinese producers, Berry said.
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Berry → allow → producers
“It doesn’t matter where you are, where the funding is coming from, or the ethnicity of the ‘actors,’ who are all bots anyway,” Berry said.
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Berry → matter → actors
“In this new environment, none of the old rules matter anymore.”
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none → matter → rules
AI in “China’s Hollywood”
Hengdian World Studios in China’s Zhejiang province has long been known
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Studios → know → province
But these days, its lavish sets and backdrops are attracting more tourists and fewer actors.
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sets → attract → tourists
About 10,000 extras show up each day looking for work, but only about 800 of them will get hired, according to reports in state media.
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800 → show → media
The number of short-drama productions hosted there had fallen by at least half from a year earlier, the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily reported this spring.
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Daily → host → half
Chen, who was talent-scouted as a teen, estimates that many actors might have lost more than 60% of their work this year.
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actors → scout → work
Some of that, he noted, was because viewers have moved to consume shorter videos instead.
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viewers → note → videos
“The pace of life has become faster and a lot of people don’t have the time to watch movies or television dramas anymore,” he said.
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he → become → movies
A legal deluge
Not everyone is losing work because of AI.
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everyone → lose → AI
Fan Baile, an entertainment lawyer in Beijing, says he is keeping busy as his celebrity clients take legal action against filmmakers for “stealing” their faces to create digital avatars.
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clients → say → avatars
The technology is racing ahead of regulation, Fan said, making Chinese judges ill-equipped to deal with the deluge of cases involving individual face protections and digital infringement.
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judges → race → protections
“Traditional portrait infringement cases were straightforward: Using an unauthorized face constitutes an infringement,” Fan said.
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Fan → use → infringement
“Now, AI can preserve 70% to 80% of a person’s likeness while altering minor features, and it’s more complicated to assess infringements.”
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it → preserve → infringements
In April, popular Chinese actor Jackson Yee made headlines when his studio issued a public statement that his face was being misused by AI drama producers.
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face → make → producers
Barely a week later, buzzy Chinese actor Dilraba Dilmura revealed she had sued and won a court case against the producer and distributor of an AI micro drama that featured an actor with a striking resemblance to her.
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that → reveal → her
Even nonactors are dragged in.
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nonactors → drag → ?
One commercial model discovered that photos she had posted on social media appeared to have been used to create a villain in the popular AI micro drama “The Peach Blossom Hairpin.”
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she → discover → drama
In April, the Actors Committee of the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations released a statement condemning such infringements and asserted that AI platforms needed to comply with the laws and strengthen their compliance rules.
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platforms → release → rules
Actors in Hollywood have raised similar concerns about unauthorized use of their likenesses by AI models.
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Actors → raise → models
But policing facial infringement is like playing whack-a-mole, Fan said.
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Fan → police → whack
He said he once watched more than 50 AI micro drama series for clients, searching frame by frame for a fleeting three-second appearance of their faces.
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he → say → faces
Some film producers, he says, deliberately make AI characters resemble stars, using notoriety resulting from the anger of fans to generate viewership for their work.
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characters → say → work
…and 44 more, not listed.
