AI short-drama male leads build fanbases as face and voice disputes grow
A DoNews feature examines the fandom forming around algorithm-generated male leads in AI short dramas, including characters such as Duan Yan, Gu Jingchen and Yan Jiming, who have their own accounts and fan groups. Duan Yan took part in this year's Tmall Qixi campaign as an AI companion character alongside other AI leads, while the article describes an industry that either licenses face data for roughly 100–200 yuan a year or scrapes multiple photos of real performers and blends features into composite faces. It cites the takedown of the AI drama "Peach Blossom Hairpin" over an unlicensed likeness, with its producer barred from uploading for 15 days, and a voice actor's claim that Duan Yan used an AI voice closely resembling his without permission. The piece also says more than 220,000 AI short dramas launched on Douyin in the first half of the year, 98.7% of them below break-even, and notes Mango TV announced five AI "debut" artists shortly before publication.
Virtual characters are already winning brand deals and fan clubs, but unresolved likeness- and voice-rights disputes may define how far that business can go.