China's State Council Information Office reported that at a press conference on Sept. 17, Wang Xiaoliang, director of the Network Audio-visual Program Management Department, said that in the first eight months of this year, a total of 430,000 microdramas were released.

AI short films accounted for over 90% of them.

So far this year, regulators have ordered the removal of 68,000 short films that included "vulgar and harmful material, content deemed inappropriate for children, and copyright violations," the office said. Films created using AI account for more than 90% of them.

Regulators note that short films are widely favored by audiences, and the number of registered viewer accounts for this genre have now exceeded 800 million. Last year, the market size of short films surpassed 100 billion yuan (US$14.9 billion).

A shot from "The Peach Blossom Hairpin", one of the AI short films removed from Chinese platforms due to the unauthorized use of ordinary people's faces as film characters.

The application of AI technology brings new forms of expression, helping to reduce costs and increase efficiency for producers. However, this technology also brings new challenges in managing content quality and protecting legal rights and interests.

China encourages creativity alongside compliance with basic standards. Broadcasting platforms are obligated to enforce regulations on the use of copyrighted images and sounds, and AI films need to be labeled with content tags. According to regulations, every video generated by artificial intelligence must include a clearly visible label.

Technology news website IT Home reports that the short film production industry is currently undergoing a fierce "price war and market-cleansing process."

Due to oversupply, within just half a year, the production cost per minute of an AI short film dropped from 5,000 yuan to just a few hundred and even lower for some experienced crews.

On Aug. 31, Hunan TV and the Mango TV platform jointly broadcast the "Sequel to Journey to the West", marking the era of full-length films made using artificial intelligence.

The series has broadcast five out of its 30 episodes, already attracting nearly 300 million online views.