Christine Li is a mannequin and influencer, however not an actor, so when she noticed herself enjoying a merciless character in a Chinese microdrama she felt bewildered, then offended and afraid.
The 26-year-old is one among two individuals who advised AFP their likenesses had been solid with out consent within the AI-generated present “The Peach Blossom Hairpin”, which ran on Hongguo, a significant microdrama app owned by Tiktok guardian firm ByteDance.
Li plans to sue the drama makers and the platform, highlighting new authorized and regulatory gray areas created by synthetic intelligence.
“I was genuinely shocked. It was clearly me,” stated Li, who lives in Hangzhou in jap China. “It was so obvious that they used a specific set of photos I took two years ago and had posted on social media.”
Microdramas are ultra-short, on-line cleaning soap operas vastly in style in China and elsewhere.
When Li’s followers alerted her to the collection, she was horrified to search out her digital twin proven slapping ladies and mistreating animals.
“I also felt a deep fear. I kept wondering what kind of person would do something like this,” Li stated.
Hongguo hosts hundreds of free, bite-sized reveals — each live-action and AI-generated — whose episodes are two or three minutes lengthy.
As of October, the platform had round 245 million month-to-month energetic customers, in line with knowledge cited by Wenwen Han, president of the Short Drama Alliance.
A Hongguo assertion in early April stated it had taken the collection down as a result of the producers had violated platform guidelines and contractual obligations.
AI’s skill to imitate actual individuals has sparked international concern for actors’ jobs, and over such deepfakes getting used for scams and propaganda.
Li and a person who says he was portrayed as her AI husband within the collection, which grew to become a success final month on Hongguo, spoke out on-line about their separate unwelcome discoveries.
But whilst their tales sparked a public outcry about AI ethics, AFP noticed that “The Peach Blossom Hairpin” stored operating for days earlier than its elimination, with the disputed characters quietly changed.
The man, a stylist specialised in conventional Chinese clothes and make-up, had posted images of himself in costume on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu app.
Like Li, he was upset by the “ugly” portrayal of his likeness as a “sleazy” antagonist within the present.
“Will it have an impact on me, on my job, on my future work opportunities?” stated the person, who requested to make use of the pseudonym Baicai.
To preserve audiences hooked, microdramas are sometimes stuffed with surprising, larger-than-life moments.
Li and Baicai each confirmed AFP their authentic images and the characters in “The Peach Blossom Hairpin”, which bore a powerful resemblance.
For low-budget AI microdramas, Chinese laws say platforms have to be the first checkpoint for probably dodgy content material.
If they don’t perform necessary content material opinions, the movies shall be forcibly taken down, in line with the National Radio and Television Administration.
If the platforms had been conscious of any infringement however didn’t act on it, events affected can alert China’s our on-line world authorities which might impose administrative penalties, in line with Zhao Zhanling, a accomplice at Beijing Javy Law Firm.
Hongguo stated in a second assertion this month it could proceed to strengthen the way it opinions content material and the way it authorizes creators, amongst different steps.
It stated it had handled 670 AI microdramas that violated laws, with most taken down, and warned it could crack down on repeated breaches.
When approached for remark, guardian firm Bytedance referred AFP to the 2 Hongguo statements.
Li and Baicai say they want extra data from Hongguo to substantiate the id of the drama’s creator — with two firms potential candidates.
One is linked to a verified account on the Chinese model of TikTook that additionally printed the collection. Another is listed because the drama’s producer on an official Chinese submitting system.
AFP contacted each corporations however acquired no response.
Using AI to slash prices could also be tempting within the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar microdrama market.
But that includes somebody in a demeaning manner with out permission “may constitute an infringement of both portrait rights and reputation rights”, stated Li’s lawyer Yijie Zhao, from Henan Huailv Law Firm.
National laws require microdrama makers to register to acquire a licence — a step made necessary for AI-generated animations from this month.
But producers might stay within the shadows by registering non permanent outfits, Zhao stated, whereas some allegedly use abroad servers to cover.
In 2024, a Beijing courtroom ordered an organization to apologize and pay compensation to a star after its AI software program enabled customers to provide a digital persona utilizing his images and identify that would change intimate messages.
But attorneys advised AFP that compensation for plaintiffs like Li possible will not quantity to a lot because of the restricted business worth of an odd likeness.
Li worries that the saga could price her alternatives within the modeling business, as she is now “associated with controversy”.
Baicai has not launched authorized motion, however hopes to see extra measures from regulators and platforms to guard individuals like him. “There are probably plenty of cases with unknown victims,” he stated.
© 2026 AFP