China’s booming AI-generated entertainment industry is giving rise to an unusual new side hustle, where ordinary people license their faces to producers of AI-generated short dramas, advertisements and games.
A growing number of platforms are now connecting people with producers looking for faces to use in AI-generated content. What was once a private arrangement circulating within film and television industry chat groups has increasingly moved onto public platforms since April, according to the South China Morning Post. The process typically involves registering on a face-licensing platform, completing identity verification, and creating a digital actor profile that producers can browse and select from.
One such platform, Shenzhen-based Yuanxiang Xinsheng, launched in May and allows users to create these digital profiles after verification. The trend is closely tied to China’s expanding AI entertainment industry, where producers are increasingly experimenting with AI-generated characters, scripts and video, raising the question of why anyone would pay for a real person’s face when AI can generate one for free.
Earnings vary significantly. According to the South China Morning Post, one bank employee earned nearly 2,500 yuan, or about $370, after an advertising company used his portrait seven times within three days. Other platforms report far smaller payouts. Rest of World found that Shenzhen-based ActID paid users between 99 and 500 yuan, or roughly $15 to $74, per episode, with about 300 of its 800 registered users agreeing to license their likenesses. Reported earnings across the broader market range from around $7 to as much as $15,000, though the higher figures are not representative of typical earnings and depend heavily on the platform, production and licensing terms involved.
Interestingly, some producers prefer real faces over AI-generated ones because they offer distinctiveness or a convincingly human quality, particularly for lead characters or older individuals. Others, however, believe ordinary faces carry little commercial value precisely because AI can generate similar faces at will, with only celebrity likenesses retaining real value due to recognisability.
The trend also raises concerns around consent and control. A Lowy Institute analysis has warned that licensed digital likenesses could be reused or repurposed beyond their original intent, making it difficult for individuals to retain control over their own identity. Licensing a face for one use does not necessarily grant permission for that facial data to be used in broader AI training.
As AI continues to cut production timelines and costs across China’s entertainment industry, faces, voices and digital identities may increasingly become assets to be licensed and monetised, raising a broader question for anyone considering the trade-off: how much control are you willing to give up for the money.
(Source: India Today)
