Actor Chen Yilong is licensing his facial likeness to a Chinese production studio for AI-generated movies due to decreasing acting opportunities. Using his expressions captured on camera, the studio will create a digital avatar for him. This practice is part of a broader trend transforming China's film and video industry through AI. Micro dramas, short videos popular on smartphones, are being produced at an exponentially increasing rate, with over 95% now utilizing AI. Chinese technology giants like Kuaishou and ByteDance are developing the AI software driving this surge.Studio founder Sun Wei chose to license real actors' faces to avoid the homogenous look often seen in purely AI-generated performers and to overcome data biases. She believes using digitized human expressions adds necessary variety and realism. However, director Lu Beike found early AI-generated scenes to be sub-standard, noting that human performances offer more nuance, though sometimes needing to be altered to fit an AI aesthetic. Sun's studio can now produce a 90-minute AI film for a fraction of the traditional cost, using AI to generate scripts and video segments. These AI tools, developed in China, are also being tested and marketed in the U.S. This AI revolution in China's entertainment industry may foreshadow similar changes in Hollywood.