Would you rent out your face to an AI company? In China, people are now licensing their likenesses for use in short dramas, advertisements, video games. Platforms such as ActID and New Claw verify users, catalogue faces by age and appearance, and connect them with content producers. Reported fees range from about ₹700 to nearly ₹14 lakh, although most projects pay far less. The boom is being driven by China’s enormous AI microdrama market, where producers need characters at speed and scale. But this is not merely a new gig economy. A face is biometric identity. The real question is what happens after a person clicks consent. Can the face be altered, reused, resold or placed in a damaging context? China requires labels and metadata for AI-generated content. But rules do not automatically restore control after misuse. This report explains the cash, the contracts and the deepfake danger for India.
