The recent “AI Singularity” — 2025 Tencent ConTech forum brought together renowned industry insiders to discuss how AI will reshape the entertainment industry.
As artificial intelligence profoundly reshapes the entertainment industry, how should filmmakers respond – competing with AI, or collaborating with it?
Experts discussed this topic at the recent “AI Singularity” – 2025 Tencent ConTech forum, an event hosted by internet giant Tencent, where three renowned industry players – director Li Shaohong, Hong Kong visual artist Tim Yip and screenwriter Chen Yu – came together to share their ideas.
Director Li Shaohong shares her thoughts. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Yip, who won the 73rd Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonshared his experience with AI tools. He described the exhilaration of using AI to bring an alien sculpture to life, a task that once took a long time but was accomplished much more quickly thanks to artificial intelligence.
“However, I never thought that AI could influence me. I just saw it as a cool assistant or collaborator. Personally, what attracted me was that AI continues to accumulate resources from human beings, and so the AI’s ‘personality’ is shaped by humans,” Yip said.
Director Li, also president of the China Film Directors Guild, pointed out that one of the biggest challenges in the film industry is whether AI will eventually replace actors by generating digital characters.
Hong Kong visual artist Tim Yip shares his views. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Last December, Li realized Hua Man Zhu (Isle Abloom), an AIGC short film produced under Kuaishou’s Keling AI project. The initiative also involved eight other renowned directors, including Jia Zhangke and Xue Xiaolu.
Li predicted that future films could exist in two versions: one with real actors and another “played” by AI-generated characters. Still, she believes that arthouse cinema, particularly films with independent narratives that explore the complexity of humanity, will be difficult for AI to replicate.
Screenwriter Chen Yu, known for writing Zhang Yimou’s blockbuster Full river redoffered a different perspective. He suggested that AI, to some extent, is already capable of exchanging emotions with humans, sometimes acting as a “know-it-all” friend, or even simulating the role of a lover.
