Recently, China's first full-length series generated entirely by AIGC without any real human actors, "Journey to the West: The Later Chapters," officially premiered on Hunan TV's prime-time slot and Mango TV. On its premiere night, the show's real-time viewership rating hit 0.34%, with a market share of 1.79%, securing the top spot among provincial satellite channels during that time slot. The capital market also responded positively, with producer Mango Excellent Media hitting a 20% limit-up, marking the formal completion of large-scale commercial market validation for AI-generated long-form content.
This is a series that completely breaks away from traditional filming logic.The entire series consists of 30 episodes, each 40 minutes long. Leveraging Seedance 2.0/2.5 technology and Mango TV's self-developed AI creation platform "Mango Lingchuang," the full production process for visuals and character performances was completed in just four months, with production costs amounting to only one-tenth of those for traditional live-action series.Not only did production speed and costs see a major breakthrough, but the project also adopted an innovative "produce, review, and broadcast simultaneously" model. This allowed for dynamic iteration of episode content based on danmu (bullet comment) feedback and review comments, reducing the per-episode revision cost to just 10% of traditional models and significantly lowering rework expenses.
In the eyes of many industry professionals, AI is rewriting the old rules of the film and television industry: long production cycles, high set construction costs, and large investments in extras may become things of the past. IP development turnover efficiency is expected to see a qualitative leap, providing low-cost opportunities to realize countless fantasy and mythological themes that were previously difficult to produce. The hype around AI in film and television is rapidly heating up, as if a new era of content has arrived. But behind the excitement, a sharp question has been put on the table: When AI can quickly produce complete long-form series, will real human actors truly face unemployment?
The series itself is a mythological theme, featuring grand celestial palaces amidst clouds and various demons and monsters, which naturally suits AI-generated visual expression. But as technology continues to iterate, will this model spread to urban and realistic genres? AI can generate faces, movements, and lines; theoretically, many future series may no longer require real human appearances, potentially squeezing the survival space for many young and mid-tier actors. Professionally trained performers will face not only competition from peers but also tireless, low-cost AI digital characters.
The controversy extends beyond job security concerns to touch upon the essence of artistic creation. Acting is not just about performing actions and reciting lines; human emotions, subtle expressions, and empathy derived from life experiences are the unique core of live-action performance. Many viewers have reported that while AI characters look exquisite, they lack the spiritual vitality inherent in real actors, with some facial expressions appearing stiff and failing to evoke strong emotional resonance. Is art merely imagery constructed through technology, or is it a projection of human life experience? When a series completely strips away live-action performance, do we lose the intrinsic value of the performing arts even as we achieve cost reduction and efficiency gains?
Of course, we shouldn't jump to the extreme conclusion that "actors are about to lose their jobs en masse." At this stage, AIGC is more of a powerful creative tool than an all-around content creator. Script polishing, world-building, and character emotional logic still rely on the control of screenwriters, directors, and others; the visuals and characters produced by AI also require significant manual adjustment and correction. The success of "Journey to the West: The Later Chapters" is more of a successful experiment in the mythological genre; depicting human emotions and complex humanity in realistic themes remains a gap that current AI finds very difficult to cross.
Technology is always a double-edged sword. "Journey to the West: The Later Chapters" demonstrates the huge potential of AIGC in the industrialization of film and television, marking an undeniable technological victory. However, while we cheer for "costs cut to one-tenth" and "surging production efficiency," we cannot avoid the pressing question: Should the price of technological progress be borne by a large number of traditional film and television practitioners? Is the ultimate goal of technological innovation to completely discard the creative value of humans?
AI opens up new possibilities for film and television, but acting, as a human art form, should not be easily replaced entirely by technology. Whether the future industry will see AI completely take over mass-produced series or move towards human-AI collaboration—with AI handling scenes and special effects while humans safeguard the core of storytelling and performance—remains a question that only time can answer.