In China, People Are Renting Their Faces to AI Dramas
New Chinese platforms pay individuals $15 to $700 to license their faces for AI dramas and ads. Lawyers warn that once a face enters the marketplace, its owner loses control of it.
The AI That Took Their Jobs Is Now Renting Their Faces, For $15
In China, the AI boom that displaced actors and models has found a new use for them. It is renting their faces. A growing number of platforms now compensates people from $15 to $700 to grant their likeness for AI-generated content. Producers can browse through catalogs of faces categorized by gender, age, and type—from the "girl-next-door" to "supermodel"—and filter them based on genre.
How Renting a Face Works
ActID, a Shenzhen platform launched in March, has registered approximately 800 users, with around 300 agreeing to license their images. So far, two AI productions have licensed about ten faces at $15 to $74 per episode, with ActID taking a tenth of the revenue. Its marketing chief, Camille Yan, explains that "producers want attractive faces for lead roles, but they also need distinctive ones like elderly people." AI dramas, she adds, "don’t require acting ability anyway; the faces serve as source materials."
New Claw, a Chengdu platform, transitioned into this business after its previous venture as a production house was affected by AI. It sets a minimum price of $74 per image to prevent users from undercutting each other. "Traditional drama production declined, advertising budgets shrank," says its operations lead, Long Lyu. Even luxury brands are shifting to AI, he notes, providing individuals with an alternative source of income.
The Problem the Platforms Can’t Fix
These platforms present themselves as a solution to unauthorized use of faces already happening. Ordinary people keep finding their images in AI dramas they never consented to appear in. Two influencers accused ByteDance’s Hongguo of lifting their faces for a drama that garnered over 40 million views, leading to the removal of the video. ByteDance claims it has taken down over 85,000 videos with unauthorized AI reproductions of faces and voices since early 2026.
The courts are becoming inundated with such cases. The Guangzhou Internet Court has handled around 700 such cases in three years. In March, a Beijing court ruled that an unauthorized AI face-swap violates the law even after editing the image.
A legal marketplace is intended to circumvent these issues, according to Yile Deng, a Beijing lawyer specializing in these cases. However, she highlights a significant catch: "Once a face enters an AI marketplace, its owner effectively loses long-term control of it." Platforms cannot prevent unauthorized face-swapping, illegal data collection, or future model training on the images, as the licensing terms are often vague and unclear.
The People Who Know Best Are Refusing
Xu Fang, a 21-year-old model in Shanghai, is suing a fashion brand over what he claims was unauthorized use of his face. This highlights the ongoing struggle to protect personal likenesses in an era dominated by AI technology.