In January, a minute of AI short drama cost 5,000 yuan to make in China. By mid-year it cost a few hundred. Of the 221,900 AI shows posted on Douyin in the first half of 2026, 1,055 passed 100 million views — under half a percent. Production got cheap. Attention did not.
China is turning AI video into an industry — and most of it goes unwatched
Reuters reported on 25 September that Chinese cities are competing for AI film studios with subsidies, cheap computing and rent. Beijing has a 260 million yuan fund for audiovisual technology. Bona Film Group’s Sanxingdui: Future Memories, a 90-minute AI film, was the first to get a theatrical screening licence. Actors have raised concerns about their likeness, and China requires AI content to be labelled (Reuters, 25 Sep).
My read: when the minute is nearly free, the idea is the only thing left to pay for. My Sisi post for Shirin Asal was one image and one line — “Summer has layers”. Zero media spend, 119,117 views, 85.3% from non-followers. Nothing about it was expensive to render. The expensive part was deciding what the product signals in summer. Budget the thinking. The rendering is now the cheap line on the quote.
Higgsfield lets Claude work inside After Effects, Blender and Resolve
Higgsfield’s Production Skills Bundle, announced on 25 September, adds 11 workflows to its MCP connector for Claude: scene building and shaders in Blender, shot compositing and clean-up in After Effects, footage sorting in Premiere Pro, plus Illustrator, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve grading and TouchDesigner. Layers, paths and timelines stay editable. The page lists no price (Higgsfield, 25 Sep).
My read: the headline is the word “editable”. Brand work changes on day five — legal wants a different line, the pack gets a new flavour. A flattened render means generating again; a layered comp means a ten-minute fix. On Tiny, the hard part was the crossing from live action to animation: both sides had to share lighting direction and colour temperature. That is compositing work, and it lives in layers. I have not tested this bundle yet. I would try it on a cutdown first — not on a hero film.
The FTC chair: the company answers for its AI agent, not the agent
Speaking in Austin on 25 September, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson rejected treating AI agents as independent actors and said he would resist “anthropomorphising” them. His point: if someone tells a tool to do something and it does it, the person is responsible. It is a stated position, not a new rule (Reuters, 26 Sep).
My read: this is how I have always worked. The tool renders — I direct, and I sign. For a brand team it means “the AI did it” is not a defence for a wrong claim, a borrowed face or an off-brand line. Keep a record of who wrote the prompt and who approved the frame. When something goes wrong, that record is the difference between a correction and a crisis.
What I’d do today
Add two lines to every AI production brief: who approves the final frame, and in what format the film is delivered — layered, not flattened. Then move budget from rendering to the idea. If you want to see how I scope that, start here.
Sources
- Reuters — “China fuels rush to turn AI video into an industry”, 25 Sep 2026 (syndicated copy) — aol.com
- Higgsfield — Production Skills Bundle for Claude, announced 25 Sep 2026 — higgsfield.ai
- Reuters — FTC chair suggests AI developers should be liable for conduct of agents, 26 Sep 2026 (remarks 25 Sep; syndicated copy) — tbsnews.net