Artificial intelligence disrupts Chinese labor markets and media

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence in China is significantly impacting the labor market, particularly within the audiovisual and e-commerce sectors. In the digital media industry, approximately 95% of the 128,000 short-episode series released in China during the first quarter of this year were generated using AI. Advanced video generation models, such as ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, are driving this shift, with AI-produced content dominating popular animation rankings on platforms like Douyin.

This technological transition poses a substantial threat to employment. The short-form series industry in China employs roughly 690,000 people, while approximately 15 million individuals rely on livestreaming as their primary profession. In e-commerce, virtual presenters can operate 24 hours a day at an estimated 10% of the cost of a human worker.

Legal precedents are already emerging regarding worker protections. A Chinese court recently ruled that a company could not terminate an employee solely because AI could perform the same tasks more cheaply. The court determined that replacing a worker with AI constitutes a business choice rather than a valid legal reason for contract termination.