Face ‘stolen’ by AI short film

Li, 26, model and social media influencer, but not an actress. Therefore, when he found himself appearing in an AI-generated movie called Peach blossom hair brooch As a villain, she felt confused, then angry and afraid.

“I was really shocked. It was obvious it was me,” Li, who now lives in Hangzhou, told AFP. “They used a set of photos I took and posted on social networks two years ago.”

Microdramas are very popular in China. Peach blossom hair brooch aired on Hongguo, a short film app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance. Li said he “felt extremely scared” and wondered why the production team could do such a thing. She plans to sue both the film producer and the broadcasting platform.

Theo France24Hongguo offers thousands of free short films, both live-action and AI-generated, with each episode lasting two or three minutes. As of the end of last year, the app had 245 million monthly active users, according to data provided by Short Drama Alliance – a short film consulting, creation and registration support platform in Hong Kong.

After Li’s suggestion, Peach blossom hair brooch causing a strong wave of opposition in public opinion. However, the show continued to air, even though it later removed episodes containing Li’s image.

Meanwhile, Hongguo confirmed that it has removed some movies because the producers violated platform rules, and “continues to strengthen content moderation and licensing processes for creators”. Since the beginning of the year, the platform has handled 670 short films produced by AI that violated regulations. However, they declined to comment on specific cases.

Just like Li, a person nicknamed Baicai told AFP that his image was also exploited in the same way. Although he is a stylist specializing in traditional Chinese costumes and makeup, he suddenly appeared in an AI movie with an ugly appearance, portraying the image of a “despicable” villain in the movie.

“Will this affect me, my current job and my future job opportunities?”, Baicai asked himself.

Microdrama is booming in China thanks to increasingly cheap AI video creation tools. Instead of having to recruit many actors, producers now just need to provide images, stories and let AI create the content itself. They become the new growth segment of the Chinese short video market, which is already the world’s top. This type of movie is often divided into several episodes, each a few minutes long, created using algorithms instead of real actors and scenes. Thanks to saving production costs, AI short films have become popular in a context where the audience is also more forgiving.

Data from analytics platform DataEye shows that AI movies with digital characters accounted for 38% of the top 100 manju movies (short films adapted from web novels, comics or original scripts) in January, up sharply from 7% in the same period last year. The total views of this category on the January chart reached 2.55 billion. According to ECNSaudiences are receptive to AI short films partly because the characters are becoming more realistic, reducing the “uncanny valley” effect – the feeling of discomfort with objects that resemble people but are not real.

The use of AI for most production processes in the short film industry in China is considered to help cut costs. However, it also causes pain when the content is mainly shocking, view-seeking, uncontrolled, as well as copyright infringement when many people have illegal images used for movies.

Chinese regulations state that platforms must control potentially harmful content. According to the China National Radio and Television Administration, if mandatory content censorship is not implemented, the video will be forcibly removed. Since early April, short filmmakers have also been required to register for a license, especially when using artificial intelligence.

Expert Zhao Zhanling of Beijing Javy law firm in Beijing said that if the platforms know about the violation but do not handle it, the affected party can report it to the Cyberspace Administration of China. However, he noted that some are trying to circumvent the law by registering temporary businesses and using servers abroad to hide their identities.

Baicai said they have not yet sued the platform and team for using images illegally. He hopes managers will take more measures to protect people like him. “Maybe out there, there are many more cases of being taken advantage of like that,” he added.