People in China are renting their faces to AI — for up to $15,000

Would you let an artificial intelligence company use your face for money?

In China, a growing number of ordinary people are doing exactly that, licensing their appearance to AI content producers who can turn their faces into digital actors for videos, advertisements, games and other virtual content.

Prices range from just 50 yuan, or about $7, to as much as 100,000 yuan — nearly $15,000 — according to listings reported by the South China Morning Post.

The emerging business effectively lets people “rent” their faces without having to appear in every production.

Once a person’s appearance has been digitally captured, AI technology can generate new footage featuring their likeness.

One man, a 27-year-old bank employee surnamed Huang, decided to sell the rights to his portrait after seeing others offering their likenesses online.

Within three days, his image had reportedly been licensed seven times, earning him about 2,600 yuan, or roughly $370.

He was not alone.

Online platforms in China are increasingly connecting people willing to license their likenesses with companies producing AI-generated content.

Prices vary considerably depending on the person’s appearance, how their image will be used and the terms of the licensing agreement.

The highest figures advertised should not be confused with typical earnings.

Separate reporting by Rest of World on China’s emerging AI entertainment industry found deals in which people licensed their faces for considerably smaller sums, including payments equivalent to roughly $15 to $74 per episode.

The technology has particular appeal for China’s rapidly expanding market for AI-generated short dramas.

Instead of hiring an actor for every scene, producers can obtain permission to use someone’s likeness and then generate footage of that digital character.

AI can change the character’s clothing, surroundings, movements and dialogue without requiring the person whose face is being used to return to a studio for every production.

Some platforms allow users to upload images of themselves and offer their digital likenesses to potential buyers.

The result is effectively a new type of gig work: people are monetising not their time or labour, but their appearance.

The unusual side hustle also raises questions about consent and control.

Licensing a person’s face to an AI producer could potentially allow their likeness to appear in situations they never physically participated in.

That makes the terms of an agreement particularly important, including how long a company can use the likeness, what kinds of content it can appear in and whether it can be sublicensed or reused.

China has introduced rules covering deepfakes and other forms of synthetically generated media as authorities respond to the rapid growth of generative AI.

But commercial markets for digital likenesses continue to develop quickly as AI-generated video becomes cheaper and increasingly realistic.

For people such as Huang, that can mean earning money without taking on a conventional acting job.

For AI producers, meanwhile, it provides a growing library of human faces they can transform into virtual performers.

And for everyone else, it poses a distinctly modern question: how much would someone have to pay you to rent your face to AI?