Slow is beautiful: China launches war against AI drama, goes beyond algorithms

Wang’s remarks, made at a press conference on September 17, follow a proliferation of formulaic and derivative content as producers race to churn out more dramas in pursuit of hits and profits.

The scale of the shift is striking. Around 430,000 microdramas were released in China in the first eight months of 2026 – as much as 13 times the figure for the whole of last year – with AI dramas accounting for more than 90 per cent of new releases, Wang said.

According to Wang, the regulator will step up its initiative to promote and distribute high-quality microdramas, guiding platforms to create dedicated sections for live-action dramas while providing financial support so that quality productions can find audiences and generate returns.

Microdramas or duanju, meaning short or mini dramas, have exploded in popularity in China in recent years.

Built for mobile screens and short attention spans, the fast-paced, scripted and often melodramatic shows are divided into dozens of episodes, usually in a vertical format, with each lasting just a few minutes.

AI is moving beyond a supporting tool and into almost every stage of production – from story adaptation and scriptwriting to character and scene generation, and onwards to post-production – upending an industry that supports more than 2 million jobs nationwide.

The change has spawned a new format known as AI microdramas – AI-generated animation and live action-style dramas featuring lifelike digital characters that reduce the need for conventional filming.

Companies can now churn out AI-generated content at a pace that was previously impossible, lowering production costs and technical barriers while allowing producers to test more titles in the hope of finding hits.

Johnny Chan, a senior lecturer in information systems at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said microdrama platforms created a self-reinforcing cycle: the more you watch, the better the algorithm learns what keeps you hooked.

Creators keep refining the cliffhangers and paywalls that work, while the platforms invest more money to make the experience even stickier, he wrote in a paper published in August by the journal Systems Research and Behavioural Science.

Chan wrote that while people would usually get bored eventually by the formula, the ability of AI to rapidly generate endless fresh stories and variations meant the natural “boredom brake” might never fully kick in, causing viewers to keep scrolling for longer.

02:52

Chinese actor becomes vegetable vendor after surge in AI-generated microdramas

According to data from the China Netcasting Services Association, more than 275,000 AI microdramas were released online in the first half of 2026, an average of about 1,500 each day.

The explosion in numbers has created a broader regulatory challenge for Chinese authorities: how to encourage this form of cultural production while preventing speed, scale and platform-driven consumption from coming at the expense of quality, originality and rights.

The expanded use of the technology has given rise to various types of regulatory abuse, including content plagiarism and repackaging, as well as AI face-swapping and voice cloning, along with copyright infringement involving online literature.

Many high-profile actors and the general public alike have accused AI microdrama producers of using their likenesses without consent.

The speed at which AI is reshaping the industry has also exposed a growing gap between production capacity and the quality and originality of what gets made.

In the first half of 2026, only 0.48 per cent of new AI microdramas released on the social media platform Douyin surpassed 100 million views, according to industry data provider DataEye.

Lydia Chen, a 30-year-old AI microdrama writer and director producing live action-style dramas for overseas audiences, said the industry’s rush for hits had made copying almost routine.

Platforms and production companies often copied each other’s hits and were used to taking dramas that had already gone viral in China, tweaking the plot and transplanting the story to a foreign setting, she said.

03:29

Small screen, big impact: inside China’s US$5 billion micro drama industry

For example, a Chinese tale of a ba zong – internet slang for a bossy president or a powerful, domineering businessman – and a female lead from the countryside can be repackaged as a New York billionaire falling for a woman from rural America.

“You can see the productions becoming increasingly like internet products,” said Chen, who worries that as real-world filming declines, the craft itself will stagnate while AI models will have fewer new examples of real filmmaking to learn from.

“If everyone keeps copying past hits, where will the new ideas of the future come from?”

Chen also noted that some storylines adapted for overseas audiences reproduced traditional and conservative Chinese cultural attitudes towards gender, relationships and family – as they catered to the tastes of the mass-market microdrama audience.

She pointed to the plotline of a “bossy president” falling for a rural woman whose virginity is portrayed as part of her appeal, along with plots idealising women as stay-at-home mothers with multiple children.

“Sometimes I wonder whether this is really the kind of culture we should be exporting,” she said. “To me, some of these ideas feel quite outdated.”

Beijing has responded to the challenges by tightening oversight of both the content and the systems through which it reaches audiences.

The National Radio and Television Administration launched a two-month campaign in June targeting “harmful, lowbrow and pirated” microdrama content.

The campaign focused on material harmful to children as well as sexually suggestive scenes, wealth-flaunting, “distorted” views on marriage and relationships, along with superstitions, violent revenge, sensationalist titles and copyright violations.

Wang told the press conference that since the beginning of the year, regulators had removed 68,000 microdramas that violated the rules and guided platforms to punish more than 1,200 accounts.

More than 90 per cent of the problematic content involved AI dramas, he said.

The government has also introduced rules specifically addressing the use of AI in production.

The microdrama development and management measures, which took effect on September 1, require clear labelling for every episode of AI-generated microdramas, along with “respect for original works, copyright protection, fair competition and more orderly industry development”.

Platforms must also regularly review and assess their recommendation algorithms, models and data, give priority to high-quality microdramas and prohibit suggestions that are designed to encourage user indulgence or excessive consumption.

The pressure is also being felt by people working inside the industry, with microdrama actors facing a harsh reality.

Since the beginning of the year, many have said they are struggling to find roles, with some actors taking on part-time work as AI-generated dramas increasingly replace live-action productions.

For those still working in AI microdrama production, greater efficiency has not necessarily meant an easier workload.

Shiliu, a 28-year-old AI microdrama director who joined the industry 2 ½ years ago, said his team was expected to complete five dramas a month, each running for 50 to 70 episodes.

As the team shrank, he found himself taking on multiple roles and working 14 to 16 hours a day, said Shiliu, who asked not to be identified by his real name.

“Because AI is so convenient, bosses only focus on efficiency,” he added. “Everyone was working themselves to the limit just to [fulfil demand] and make money.” The workload eventually took its toll, prompting him to quit the industry.

The state-run Economic Daily urged the industry last month to move away from scale-driven growth in favour of higher quality, more original and professionally produced content.

Familiar formulas were being repeatedly recycled while a flood of lookalike content competed for limited attention, the paper said in an article published on August 13.

“Promotion and computing costs rise, leaving producers caught in a cycle of producing more without earning more,” it noted. “Audiences’ willingness to pay is further eroded while the industry’s reputation is bound to suffer.”

DataEye estimates that the overseas market for Chinese microdramas will exceed US$6 billion in 2026, with AI-generated animated and live-action style dramas accounting for more than US$4 billion.

The netcasting services association said that China’s AI microdrama industry was reaching a turning point, shifting from rapid, loosely regulated expansion towards more disciplined and quality-driven growth.

In Chen’s view, as AI lowers the technical barriers to content creation and more people without a professional background are able to turn their ideas into original works, individually created non-formulaic projects will have a better chance of standing out.

“We must strike a balance between encouraging innovation and upholding safeguards,” Wang said.

“Ultimately, AI is a tool, while people remain the creators. The faster AI dramas develop, the more important it is to ensure content quality.”