With the rapid advancement of AI technology, China’s first all-AI-generated movie, “Soul Ferrying: Dream of Floating Life,” is set to premiere this summer, sparking controversy. Behind this digital revolution that claims to enhance efficiency lies multiple crises such as infringement of portrait rights, vulgarization of content, and official manipulation of narratives.
Experts analyze that the Chinese Communist Party views AI as a weapon for “overtaking on a curve,” but in the chaos of lacking moral boundaries and excessive technological expansion, it may ultimately lead to social unrest and backlash against its regime.
Co-produced by iQIYI and Changxin Media, China’s first all-AI feature film “Soul Ferrying: Dream of Floating Life” is causing a stir in the industry. The film not only features characters, scene designs, and visual effects generated by AI but also fully realizes pure AI in dubbing, background music, post-editing, and transitions.
Adapted from the 2014 classic original web drama “Soul Ferrying,” the film attempts to “replicate” the youthful images of the main characters Zhao Li, Xia Dongqing, and Wang Xiaoya through technology, recreating their unique supernatural atmosphere and classic scenes.
However, the producer of the film, Guo Jingyu, who had previously openly opposed the abuse of AI actors and questioned why use artificial beings when real individuals can act, is now accused by netizens of being “hypocritical” for leading an all-AI movie.
In response, Guo Jingyu stated that the project is an “efficiency test” to explore the auxiliary value of AI in developing original works, rather than complete replacement of human actors.
But the subsequent remarks by iQIYI’s founder and CEO Gong Yu have escalated the controversy. At the annual content release event, he predicted that future live-action productions might become “cultural heritage,” instilling strong fears in the public about the decline of the film industry.
Even more controversial are iQIYI’s introduction of the “Nadou Pro” platform and “AI Actors Database” project. The official claim of having signed authorization agreements with over a hundred actors to generate “digital avatars” as leads in series using motion capture technology. Following this news, several celebrities promptly released statements “severing ties,” denying any AI image authorizations, turning the matter into a murky contract dispute.
Wang He, a specialist in Chinese issues, highlighted, in an interview with Dajiyuan, that the introduction of AI in film and television production has plunged into a state of “chaotic confusion.” He believes the root cause lies in “the destruction of Chinese people’s moral and ethical standards by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the years.”
Wang He emphasized that under market temptations and high-pressure political control, reality-based content is restricted, pushing the film and television industry towards vulgar areas while massively utilizing AI to reduce costs, resulting in the creative sphere being fundamentally in a “out of control” state.
Director Zeng Jianyuan of the Taiwan Huaren Democratic Academy expressed concern. He told Dajiyuan, “The ‘true-to-false’ simulation technology makes it extremely difficult for the general public to distinguish between true and false information, and authoritarian regimes that control information will have more capabilities to use cheap AI to create more illusions, disrupting people’s judgment of reality.”
The low threshold of AI technology has facilitated the rapid proliferation of “one-person production” AI short dramas across major platforms in China.
In April 2026, more than a dozen A-list celebrities, including Yiyang Qianxi, Wei Deng, and Jun Gong, accused their likenesses and voices of being illegally synthesized by AI for commercial gain in short dramas. These works often have exaggerated plots, take on sensationalism, and even exhibit strong vulgar tendencies, severely damaging the public image of the celebrities.
Wang He analyzed that the entertainment industry in China is already chaotic, and under the CCP’s high-pressure rule, deep realistic works struggle to survive, leading creators to shift focus to the lowbrow areas that the CCP “doesn’t care about and doesn’t forbid.”
The widespread application of AI not only reduces production costs but also amplifies the output speed of these negative contents, even exporting them overseas, creating a fierce “cultural backlash.”
Dr. Xiaoqiong Kuai, a researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, told the BBC that the harm of generative AI goes beyond rewriting classic works, encompassing erosion of public trust due to deepfake technology and perpetuation of human biases in generated content.
In contrast, Taiwan’s cautious approach to AI applications in film and television stands out. Zeng Jianyuan mentioned that Taiwan’s drama and advertisement industries still predominantly feature live-action performances. If AI simulations are used in news events, media usually explicitly informs viewers that “this is AI film and television,” to avoid confusion between reality and illusion.
During the annual “Two Sessions” in March this year, Beijing included a series of future industries and artificial intelligence (AI) close to the center of macro policies. Wang He remarked that the CCP views AI technology as a key to “overtaking on a curve,” a “weapon” and “amplifier” for competition with the United States, and is vigorously promoting it at the strategic level through “AI+” for industrial transformation surpassing the US.
He further explained that while Western countries seek to establish ethical regulatory frameworks and restrict dangerous applications of AI in nuclear weapons or military, the CCP adopts a “unrestricted warfare” logic where “moral boundaries have long been absent” in policy considerations.
Moreover, based on observations by Zeng Jianyuan, the CCP possesses powerful network control technology and can flood the internet with large amounts of “junk information” in line with official standards through AI, not just for commercial gain but also for media infiltration and “cognitive warfare” abroad.
He specifically pointed out the Chinese-speaking online world, where the CCP produces massive content leveraging its demographic advantage and utilizes algorithms for substantial data pushes, easily overshadowing the authentic voices of Taiwan and other Chinese-speaking regions.
Zeng Jianyuan criticized that the Beijing authorities always “think from the perspective of ruling interests. They are not concerned about the authenticity of information; they just want control.” By employing cheap AI technology, the CCP attempts to establish a global “digital narrative hegemony” favorable to its rule.
To the CCP, so-called “classic” film and television dramas often carry officially approved values and historical perspectives. Faced with the chaos brought by AI in cinema, China’s National Radio and Television Administration launched a “special rectification” campaign at the beginning of 2026 to crack down on “AI-modified” videos targeting classic TV shows. Officially, these videos are deemed to “subversively distort and deconstruct” classics, interfering with minors’ correct understanding.
However, BBC’s analysis points out that the core motivation behind this overhaul is to maintain the CCP’s singular official narrative on historical events, incorporating technological governance into the realm of “national security” to maintain absolute control over the interpretation of history and current affairs.
Wang He described the fatal flaw in the CCP’s control model as a vicious cycle of “clamp down, outcry, release, disorder.”
He contended that the current chaos is essentially the inevitable result of long-term rule destroying morality and cannot be quelled by short-term “special rectification.”
In Wang He’s view, when the abused technology transforms into a civilian-driven chaos of “AI modification,” leading to uncontrolled content development, the CCP, fearing the impact on society, will impose strict control, resulting in a “heart-stopping” battle of technology and power that may not only cause the film and television industry to decline but also potentially backfire on the CCP regime itself.