--- title: In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas description: Chinese platforms are paying people $15–$700 to license their faces for AI-generated microdramas and ads, creating a new biometric marketplace. Platforms like... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas | daily.dev og:description: Chinese platforms are paying people $15–$700 to license their faces for AI-generated microdramas and ads, creating a new biometric marketplace. Platforms like... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/80MPjytim.png og:image:alt: In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Chinese platforms are paying people $15–$700 to license their faces for AI-generated microdramas and ads, creating a new biometric marketplace. Platforms like ActID and New Claw browse catalogues of faces by category and genre, with China releasing 128,000 microdramas in Q1 2026, over 95% using AI. Lawyers warn that once a face enters these marketplaces, owners lose practical control — licensing terms are vague, and platforms cannot prevent unauthorized face-swapping, illegal data collection, or future model training. Courts are filling with non-consent cases, and even some models who've been victimized refuse to participate. The marketplace's viability is also uncertain since most AI dramas use fully synthetic faces anyway, as cost control remains the priority. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [China's $16.5B micro-drama industry becomes the world's first mass application of AI-generated video](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-16-5b-micro-drama-industry-becomes-the-world-s-first-mass-application-of-ai-generated-video-gs4xmybrl) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Chinese short dramas became AI content machines](https://daily.dev/posts/how-chinese-short-dramas-became-ai-content-machines-osua4wjzy) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T23:58:44.798Z","dateModified":"2026-07-29T03:20:31.102Z","description":"Chinese platforms are paying people $15–$700 to license their faces for AI-generated microdramas and ads, creating a new biometric marketplace. Platforms like...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5e57b16708f24641034d9b93d2a32485?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5e57b16708f24641034d9b93d2a32485?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/in-china-people-are-renting-their-faces-to-ai-dramas-80mpjytim","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"In China, people are renting their faces to AI dramas"}]} ```