AI-Generated Short Dramas Drive Demand for Face Licensing in China

In China’s rapidly growing short drama sector, approximately 95% of the 128,000 micro-dramas released in the first quarter of this year were created using artificial intelligence, according to CCTV. These ultrashort, melodramatic shows, tailored for smartphone audiences, have become a lucrative industry since their inception in 2018, with AI enabling faster and cheaper production.

Despite the low cost of producing AI-generated content, only a small portion of these dramas achieve widespread popularity. However, the economics allow a single successful title to offset the losses from thousands of less successful productions and still generate profit.

A significant challenge facing this industry is the issue of image rights. Cases of ‘face theft’—where AI replicates the facial features of real actors without permission—have led companies to actively seek legal rights to use real human faces in their AI-generated dramas for specified durations.

An actress known as Lin Min shared that she was approached by a short drama director with an offer of 500 yuan ($75) for a one-year license to use her image. She declined, deeming the amount insufficient. Her social media post highlighted a growing trend where agencies pay between 500 and 1,500 yuan for legal rights to individuals’ faces for AI content.

Li Xin, a pseudonymous employee at an AI short drama firm in Hangzhou, told Chao News that those selling their image rights are mainly students, community members, extras, or mid-level actors, since “big stars would never sign an image licensing agreement.”

Film director Chen Shi noted that although a short drama may feature only five or six main actors, it requires numerous supporting roles—sometimes a dozen to twenty. Given that generative AI models often appropriate real faces, companies prefer to secure official rights from actual people to avoid legal complications.

Contract terms vary, with some firms offering higher fees for exclusive image rights, while others pay less but permit collaborators to license their faces to multiple short drama producers.

In efforts to reduce costs, some short drama companies have also developed their own AI-generated actors, a practice that previously sparked controversy in China.