The rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry has become a threat to Chinese actors and online influencers, writes financial times. Modern video generation models, such as the bit-beating Seedance 2.0, make it possible to replace humans with digital actors, significantly reducing the cost and production time of video content.
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Things have changed dramatically with the release of Seedance 2.0, said Greg Wallner, a Beijing-based actor and sketch producer. Before that, he was starring in three different projects a week, but after the new artificial intelligence model emerged, “everything went wrong.” Many of Wallner’s friends “had to give up things they loved and do other things,” he said. In May, 89 of the 100 most popular animated series on Douyin, the bit-beating Chinese version of TikTok, were produced using artificial intelligence, according to analytics firm DataEye.
The China Internet Audiovisual Association reported that in the first quarter of 2026, the national short drama production was approximately 128,000, more than three times the total last year. Moreover, 95% of them are created by artificial intelligence.
The scale of the changes that have occurred is particularly striking given the number of people employed in the industry. According to 2026 data from the National School of Development of Peking University, China’s short film industry directly employs 690,000 people. According to the 2024 report of the China Internet Audiovisual Services Association, approximately 15 million people have live broadcasting as their main occupation.
Artificial intelligence is actively replacing people’s reliance on e-commerce through live broadcasting. Digital demonstrators can sell products around the clock, and their use costs are about 10% of labor costs. As of March, JD.com’s digital market leader has been used by more than 70,000 merchants. According to Baidu, a digital avatar of famous anchor Luo Yonghao even outsold real people in multiple product categories, earning 55 million yuan ($7.7 million) in just seven hours.
Content production costs have also dropped significantly. According to a professor at Tsinghua University and the person in charge of Zeelin Shenyang, an artificial intelligence animation company, in 2024, it will take a team of 5 people about three months to create a 3 to 5-minute drama. Now, an employee can complete such a job in a day or two. The cost of producing a one-minute video is 600 to 800 yuan (90 to 120 US dollars), which is about ten times cheaper than manual production. In May alone, Zeelin released nearly 8,000 minutes of episodes.
Some performers actually had to participate in creating their own digital replacements. The Financial Times cited the example of a presenter of a popular children’s education show who was asked to agree to create an AI copy of her appearance, voice and acting style – otherwise the company planned to find other actors. According to the presenter, until recently, performers who agreed to create such digital doubles were criticized for taking jobs away from their colleagues, but the change now seems inevitable.
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