Behind the "¥3,000 AI short-drama" fiasco — do AI short dramas really have a get-rich-quick myth?

Viral numbers, corrected

It has been reported that an AI short drama titled "霍去病" cost just ¥3,000 to produce, was made by a three‑person team in 48 hours, ran to 80 episodes and amassed 500 million views. Those figures went viral on Weibo and other platforms — and then imploded. Director Yang Hanhán (杨涵涵) and her Yuli Studio (娱理工作室) have since pushed back: the project was two shorts (about 4 and 6 minutes), the ¥3,000 was compute credits supplied by a platform, the “48 hours” referred to concentrated working time, and the team behind the studio numbers is closer to 20 people. The 80‑episode and 500‑million‑view claims remain unverified and, Yang says, were the result of amplification and misinterpretation.

What the numbers actually mean

Yang says the ¥3,000 figure covered only algorithmic compute—drawn from early access credits on a Nano AI (纳米AI/纳米漫剧流水线) system—and did not include wages, post‑production or platform integration. She estimates that producing an 80‑episode series at high resolution with current upscaling models would cost roughly ¥150,000 in compute alone, and ¥300,000–¥500,000 once salaries, rent and other overheads are included. Market quotes she gives for finished AI short videos run about ¥100–¥150 per second, which is far from “zero‑barrier” entry.

Why the myth spreads

Why did the myth stick? Partly because China’s short‑video ecosystem prizes virality and fast monetization; partly because overseas pick‑ups and KOL rewrites inflated partial facts. It has been reported that similar misunderstandings—like misreading a company’s total revenue as short‑drama profit—are common, and there is a thriving market for courses and quick‑rich pitches that profit from hype. Yang warns the cycle breeds low‑quality speculation and exploitative training schemes, even as AI genuinely lowers some technical barriers for creators.

A sober middle ground

AI tools do make visually ambitious work more accessible. But the episode shows that accessibility is not the same as free. For Western readers unfamiliar with China’s creator economy: platform credits, KOL amplification and rapid cross‑border sharing can create headline‑friendly but misleading narratives. Can the industry balance hype with sustainable business models? Yang’s message is simple: AI can democratize production, but meaningful output still requires teams, budgets and professional workflows — and sensational shortcuts rarely tell the whole story.