AI virtual actor opens the account for "independent debut": Under the carnival of cost reduction, entertainment cannot lose its "human" core

Jiuzhi Network News Recently, multiple AI virtual short drama characters have opened independent social accounts, causing industry shocks. They are no longer one-time digital characters in the series, but like real-life artists, updating daily routines, responding to fans, and undertaking commercial promotions, completing the transition from "production tools" to "cyber artists." This star-making experiment initiated by technology is regarded by capital as an antidote to the industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency. On the other hand, it is also questioning the entire entertainment industry: When performances can be generated in batches by algorithms, what is the core value of content creation?
For micro-short drama tracks with strong industrial attributes, the commercial appeal of AI virtual actors is almost overwhelming. Uncontrollable factors such as salary costs, schedule coordination, risk of house collapse, and public opinion public relations faced by real artists are all zero in virtual characters. After a set of character modeling is completed, it can be reused in different drama projects indefinitely, producing content 24 hours a day, and the character design will be permanently stable, and the entire project will not be dragged down by disputes in private life. For the short drama industry, which relies on batch updates and rapid return, AI is almost perfectly adapted to the business logic of assembly line production. It is no wonder that more and more producers are beginning to reduce the budgets of real-life actors and turn to virtual character research and development and operations.
But under the carnival, the cracks in the industry ecology have clearly emerged. The first to be hit are the newcomers, special actors and extras at the bottom of the industry. When low-cost AI can easily fill the background board and complete standardized supporting scenes, the already narrow channel for newcomers to rise will be further compressed, and the living space of ordinary practitioners will continue to narrow. What deserves more vigilance is the homogenization dilemma of performance. AI's performance logic is based on the imitation of massive hit materials. The output is always the "standard expressions" and "templated emotions" that best meet the algorithm's preferences. It lacks the delicacy and unexpected brilliance brought by real actors based on life experience. In the long run, the screen will be filled with perfect but empty faces, and content creation will fall into path dependence and lose its diverse expression vitality.
Deeper risks are hidden in the gray area of copyright and ethics. At present, most highly realistic AI images have training data from a large number of real-life film and television materials and public portraits, and a large number of materials have not received clear rights authorization. When virtual characters move from supporting roles in the series to independent account operations and realize commercial monetization, how should this profit be distributed to the providers of the original material? How to define the personality rights and copyright ownership of AI image? There are still no clear industry norms and legal boundaries for these issues. Once a dispute breaks out, it will easily trigger copyright shocks across the entire chain.
Some people say that the audience's pursuit of AI actors is essentially fed up with the frequent collapse of real artists. But we must see clearly that what the audience really hates is never the "real person" themselves, but the unworthy practitioners and perfunctory and sloppy performances. The "never collapsed house" provided by AI is essentially a safe but flat emotional meal substitute. Characters that can truly move people's hearts across time always carry the unique temperature and flaws of mankind. It is the actor who injects his own life experience into the character that gives the story a foundation of empathy.
Technology has always been a tool, not the ultimate answer to the industry. AI can assist creation and lower production thresholds, but it cannot replace true performance and sincere creation. If the industry only focuses on the short-term benefits of cost reduction and allows virtual characters to squeeze real-life creative space, what will ultimately consume will be the audience's trust in content and the entertainment industry will lose its most precious core of "people". In this wave of technology, keeping the bottom line of creation and drawing a clear line of technology is the foundation for the long-term development of the industry.