Recently, two AI actors Phuong Dao Tu and Chau Di Hanh became social media phenomena with more than 800 million discussions and personal accounts attracting hundreds of thousands of followers.
The topic "Two AI actors are even more famous than the group of artists waiting to explode in Cbiz" climbed to the search top, creating many debates.
Virtual actors created entirely by AI seem to be entering the center of the idol star world in an unprecedented way, beginning to possess fan attraction and commercial potential like real people.
AI actor becomes a network phenomenon
In about 1 year, as AI video creation technology is increasingly perfected, AI short films have exploded strongly in China. Many works are recognized by audiences thanks to good storylines and visual effects.
Among them, there are films that stand out not only in their impressive views, but also in the fact that the film experiments with operating AI characters as independent personal IPs.
Two social media accounts of characters in an AI short film, "Phuong Dao Tu" and "Dao khong roi Hanh" (names of the couple), currently have 385,000 and 127,000 followers respectively. Phuong Dao Tu's account alone has received more than 20 million likes.
These numbers are not inferior to a part of real actors, showing the potential to attract fans of AI characters.
The operation of these accounts is also exactly like real artists. In addition to posting clips in movies, they also continuously share everyday vlogs such as exercising, filming schedules, cooking or couple-style emotional interactions.
It is the continuous creation of the feeling of "accompanying each day" that has made the virtual character have their own life, like the idol-nurturing model that real stars still use to build deep emotional connections with fans.
AI star nurturing model
A model of creating AI stars is beginning to form in the billion-people market: using the hotness of movies to attract viewers, turning movie fans into character fans, and then continuing to develop into commercial advertising, brand cooperation, participating in entertainment shows or IP links with other projects.
If this model is successful, AI will not only be a tool to replace real actors, but can also directly compete with idol artists who are heavily dependent on fans.
The wave of creating stars with AI does not stop at short films. On Chinese short video platforms, an AI idol selection program called "12 Stars Training Competition" has also been formed. In just 2 months, the program's account has attracted more than 500,000 followers, the most liked video exceeding 760,000 views.
The program almost copies the entire process of a real idol selection show: AI idols take turns performing, with stage fancam, behind-the-scenes photos, photos taken by fans, and even fanclubs and private studio accounts.
Although they have not yet opened voting channels with real money, if these AI idols accumulate enough loyal fans, they can completely earn money through paid livestreams, digital albums or souvenir sales like real idol models.
However, according to the entertainment industry, the future of creating AI stars still has many barriers. Traditional audiences still need time to accept "catching AI idols" like catching real artists. Many people can watch AI movies but are not ready to consider AI characters as real stars.
Content created by AI still faces risks of image rights, voice and training data, causing short film platforms to tighten censorship.
