philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

How A.I. Is Transforming China’s Entertainment Industry

...

Until recently, making a hit microdrama — the soapy, short-form, made-for-mobile shows that have become wildly popular in China — meant hiring actors, renting sets and spending weeks filming and editing.

Now, some Chinese companies are churning them out for $30 a minute, with no cameras, no crew and no human performers.

That’s thanks to artificial intelligence. ...

Most A.I.-generated microdramas, which under Chinese law are required to be labeled as such, attract little attention. But some clips have racked up hundreds of millions of views, in a country where people are generally more optimistic about A.I. than in the West. The Chinese market for A.I. microdramas is expected to be worth more than $3 billion this year, according to Chinese state media, out of a more than $14 billion market for microdramas in general.

But recently, the surge has also set off an outcry in China. Actors say their work opportunities have dried up. Celebrities and ordinary people alike have threatened legal action after discovering their likenesses in A.I.-generated microdramas. (ByteDance has since introduced restrictions on using real people’s faces in Seedance.) ...

Mr. Li said he did not oppose the use of A.I. in entertainment but thought the industry was applying it in the wrong way.

“They’re still just imitating humans or trying to make things more humanlike,” he said. “They should be trying to unleash more imagination, taking a more unconventional route.”

He continued: “After all, our fundamental value as humans is in our ability to imagine.” ...

Part of the reason he had turned to the shorter format — microdrama episodes are usually one or two minutes long — was for the quick returns. ...

He hopes to make projects that combine A.I. with live action. He is working on a project that he said is similar to “Stuart Little,” the film that featured an animated mouse alongside real actors.

“If we could feel the warmth of a real performance, and also see the power of A.I. technology, I think that would be great,” he said. ...

Some of Mr. Hou’s creative employees have backgrounds in filmmaking, but others are simply people “who are obsessed with A.I.,” he said. ...

“This work isn’t exactly traditional screenwriting. Part of it requires translating into a language that A.I. can understand,” he said. “People who don’t have a traditional directing or screenwriting background might actually be better at it.”

Producing a 100-minute animated series takes about one month and three employees. Realistic ones take around five people, because it is more labor-intensive to create images that are good enough. ...

And people would gradually find ways to adapt to the employment pains, too, he said. He himself had previously worked for big tech companies in Beijing before he was forced out by cutbacks and pivoted to A.I. filmmaking.

“The impact on employment — there definitely will be an impact,” Mr. Hou said. “But for individuals, what can you do? You can only embrace this new era and think about how to adapt.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/world/asia/china-microdrama-ai-backlash.html