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. Chen’s role will be to sit in front of a video camera and make facial expressions at the prompt of a 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said.
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. Already, Chinese companies that sell AI-powered video-generation software are seeking inroads in 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. Other Chinese companies with global ambitions include Alibaba’s HappyHorse and Kuaishou subsidiary Kling. AI allows anyone with a laptop to produce entertainment, which means Americans could soon find themselves consuming content created by Chinese producers, Berry said.
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. 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. 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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