By Da Cheung
China’s iQiyi faces a backlash over its AI “actor library”, raising concerns about deepfakes, consent and the future of human performers.
The proposal, unveiled by Gong Yu, the Netflix-like streaming service’s CEO, at a Beijing tech conference this week, was meant to showcase the company’s push into AI-generated content. Instead, it ignited a dispute over consent, copyright and the future of human actors.
Gong painted a bold vision for the future of entertainment, declaring that live-action filming could soon become “intangible cultural heritage”. The company said more than 100 actors had agreed to join the “AI Actor Library” of its new production platform, Nadou Pro.
Instead of applause, the pitch quickly descended into a public relations crisis.
Within hours, top Chinese actors issued statements denying they had authorised their digital replicas. Facing mounting backlash over the prospect of AI replacing human performers, iQiyi walked back its claim, saying the list referred only to actors open to negotiations, not those granting blanket consent.
The company says AI’s integration into film remains exploratory. Yet the swift uproar highlights deep anxiety across the industry: platforms see AI as a cost-cutting tool, while actors fear becoming expendable and audiences resist algorithm-generated performances.
Buying faces
Behind iQiyi’s futuristic pitch lies a growing and controversial market: the commodification of human faces. While A-list celebrities fight to protect their likenesses, an underground supply chain has already emerged for lesser-known performers.
According to Dingjiao One, companies producing micro-dramas — short, vertically shot soap operas lasting minutes per episode — are actively purchasing portrait rights from college students, amateur models and minor actors. The going rate is low — often as little as 200 yuan ($28) per show for a three-year contract. These faces are scanned, digitised and used to generate characters using text prompts or image-to-video AI models.
Tech platforms are attempting to formalise this digital marketplace. ByteDance’s AI video generation tool, Seedance, recently introduced a system where actors and agencies can upload and authorise their digital likenesses, pulling the trade out of the legal grey area.
However, theft remains rampant. According to Dingjiao One, deepfakes and unauthorised training of AI models are an open secret. A backlash is spreading rapidly across the broader entertainment sector; as we have previously covered, top Chinese voice studios launched a coordinated opposition to unauthorized AI cloning to protect performers’ intellectual property rights. Screen actors are now fighting a similar battle.
In March 2026, a Beijing court ruled in favour of a leading actress in an AI face-swapping short drama case, setting a legal precedent for portrait infringement. Still, tracking how AI models are trained remains virtually impossible, leaving the boundaries of digital ownership deeply blurred.
Surviving the short-video shift
iQiyi’s aggressive push into generative AI is not born of technological curiosity, but of financial pressure. The traditional long-form video sector is facing an existential crisis.
Between 2018 and 2025, the company accumulated losses of more than 30 billion yuan, driven by high production costs, expensive talent and lengthy shooting schedules. Its 2025 annual revenue also fell by 7%.
At the same time, attention spans are fragmenting. A report from QuestMobile shows the value of China’s micro-drama market surpassed 100 billion yuan in 2025, dwarfing the country’s traditional box office. In late 2025, ByteDance’s free micro-drama app Hongguo overtook established platforms such as Youku in monthly active users.
To survive this two-front shift, streaming platforms are turning to AI to cut costs. iQiyi’s Nadou Pro is equipped with nearly 70 AI agents — specialised systems capable of handling tasks such as screenwriting, directing, editing and art design.
An industry reset
AI is reshaping the creative landscape. Just as software engineering was upended by automated coding tools, the video industry is undergoing a profound shift.
Long-form video has already lost at least half its market to micro-dramas, and both formats now face a broader shake-up driven by AI. Industry data cited by Economic Observer suggest AI-generated shows can be produced for a fraction of the cost of live-action series.
Liu Wenfeng, a senior vice-president at iQiyi, said that as AI lowers the barriers to production, competition will shift from making content to capturing audience attention.
Yet the ethical and emotional questions remain unresolved
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