外刊阅读:AI演员主演短剧引热议,行业风暴已至?

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Controversy Erupts Over Chinese AI Actors in Upcoming Short Drama

AI演员主演短剧引热议，行业风暴已至？

The announcement has sparked debate on social media about the AI performers’ resemblance to real actors, as well as the potential impact on industry jobs.

该官宣消息在社交媒体上引发热议，焦点集中在 AI 演员与真人演员的相似之处，以及其对行业就业可能产生的影响。

1. A famous Chinese TV and short drama studio has announced that two AI actors will star in its upcoming short drama, sparking debate over portrait rights, data use, and the future of human performers.

1. Shanghai-based production company Youhug Media unveiled the AI actors — named Qin Lingyue and Lin Xiyan — on Wednesday on microblogging platform Weibo. The pair will star in “The Qinling Bronze Occult Chronicles,” a 60-episode drama in which the characters time travel back to China’s Bronze Age (roughly 2000–771 BC), with each episode lasting 2 to 3 minutes.

1. The virtual performers have since launched accounts on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, where updates about the series and their fictional daily lives will be shared.

1. Short dramas featuring AI actors represented almost 40% of the top 100 animated short dramas in January this year, up from under 10% a year ago, according to data from digital content marketing platform DataEye. Last year, the total market value of China’s micro-drama and animated short drama sector reached 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion), nearly twice the country’s box office revenue.

1. The announcement soon triggered online backlash over the pair’s resemblance to real actors — Qin Lingyue and Lin Xiyan drew comparisons to the actor Zhai Zilu and actresses Zhao Jinmai and Zhang Zifeng, respectively — with users expressing concerns about the potential impact of AI on TV and film industry workers.

1. “Behind the unemployment of a single celebrity lies a whole group of ordinary workers who could lose their jobs — extras, cinematographers, lighting crew, catering staff, post-production teams, makeup artists, stagehands, and so on,” read one highly upvoted comment on Weibo.

1. In response to the controversy, an anonymous Youhug Media official told local media that the two AI actors’ images were generated “without copying or using the facial features of any real individual.”

1. Multiple AI-generated short dramas recently sparked widespread controversy for using AI to create a male lead resembling the actor Xiao Zhan. Following public scrutiny, some were taken down, while other studios tweaked the AI actors’ facial features.

1. AI actors that closely resemble real celebrities could face legal risks for infringing on portrait rights, Chen Yanhong, vice president of Beijing DeHeng Law Offices, told local media. Even in the case of AI-generated characters, she said, if the public can identify a specific individual from the character’s image, it can still constitute a violation of China’s Civil Code.

1. The move also drew criticism from well-known Chinese actors. “The tears of an AI character are drawn, but my tears flow from my own body,” Feng Yuanzheng, an actor and chairman of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, told local media. He said that, in contrast to AI, “what actors ultimately rely on is culture and the accumulated weight of life experience.”

DataEye  数眼科技

国内知名的数字内容营销平台，专注于新消费、新文娱等领域的大数据分析，为行业提供数据洞察、营销策略等服务，其发布的短剧行业数据是业内重要的参考依据。

1. 肖像权：        

   portrait right

2. 穿越        

   time travel

3. 动画短剧     

   animated short dram

4. 微短剧

   micro-drama

5. 撞脸            

   resemble

6. 下架            

   take down

7. 高赞评论        

   highly upvoted comment

8. 虚拟演员        

   virtual performer

    AI技术闯入短剧行业，是技术进步的必然，但影视创作的核心从来都是情感与温度，这是AI难以复刻的内核。这场争议不仅关乎肖像权与就业，更关乎行业的发展方向。

     技术该如何为创作赋能，而非取代人类的价值？这值得整个行业深思。你会为AI演员主演的短剧买单吗？评论区说说你的看法～