BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- "These videos are AI-generated," reads the profile of an account whose two stars, an orange cat and a white one, have drawn more than 670,000 followers on Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili.
In a one-minute clip viewed about 6.3 million times in five weeks, the two cats crouch at the water's edge, trying to lure fish with a slice of bread, only for the orange cat to tumble into the river. Later, the white cat prepares fish at a chopping board while its bedraggled companion bathes in a wooden tub behind it.
The scene is just a glimpse of the playful animal world on the account of Maoziqi, an AI-armed video creator and a contributor to Bilibili. Across China, such AI-generated pet stories are finding audiences and opening up new sources of income for their creators.
BECOMING AI STORYTELLERS
On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, videos under the hashtag "AI pets" have been viewed more than 3.1 billion times, with more than 160,000 people participating in content creation.
For some creators, AI has become both a new storytelling tool and a possible career path. Maoziqi, a cat owner himself, used to work in real estate planning and now makes videos full-time.
His animal world took shape through trial and error. He initially featured only the orange cat in videos themed around intangible cultural heritage, but the first few clips attracted little attention, he said.
He then introduced more conflict into the plots and added the white cat. He chose the look of Chinese domestic cats because he thought it suited the heritage themes.
The creator of Yunmi, another beloved AI-generated cat, is a graphic designer and illustrator in the real world. She said demand for her design and illustration work had declined as AI spread. The release of ByteDance's video-generation model Seedance 2.0 in February prompted her to try making AI videos herself.
She learned to use different video-generation tools and pieced together her first clip using free credits offered by platforms.
Yunmi, her orange-and-white cat character, emerged by chance when she photographed the carpet at home and asked an AI model to add a cat. "I thought it was so cute, and it became my character," she said, adding that its personality and identity developed gradually afterward.
The creator behind Juju, an account starring an AI-generated pig, also works as a graphic designer and began making videos after experimenting with AI tools at work.
The technology allows small teams and solo creators to build elaborate animal worlds, but producing the footage still involves repeated generation, selection and correction.
Maoziqi, who uses Seedance video models, said refining a single segment used to take about 10 attempts, and now often takes even more.
AUDIENCES AND INCOME
Maoziqi has built a cross-platform following of roughly 1.8 million, including some 231,000 on Instagram. The account's 92 Bilibili clips have amassed more than 6.5 million likes and surpassed 92 million total views.
Yunmi's creator has attracted nearly 400,000 followers across platforms. One of her most popular clips racked up 8.3 million views on a single platform without paid promotion, while a collection of her videos has reached 55 million views.
Lu Ziqi, a bank manager who watches micro-dramas (known as duanju in China) daily, said AI pet videos let her imagine the world through her own pet's eyes. She finds that perspective more novel than AI dramas featuring human characters.
Li Tianyu, a doctoral candidate at the Beijing Film Academy, said AI pet stories overcome the physical limitations of filming real animals, allowing creators to give them human-like roles, build stories around their actions and create elaborate visual scenes.
Young viewers in particular have a strong appetite for pet-themed content, he said. With relatively few real-pet films available, short videos have become an important way to meet that demand, and AI pet videos offer a further exploration.
That audience appeal also creates opportunities for brand partnerships, which account for most of the earnings of Maoziqi. His cat stories have featured product placements for Prada and Peet's Coffee.
Advertising accounts for nearly all the video income earned by Yunmi's creator. Brands approach her about product integrations or customized storylines, and she takes on roughly two campaigns a month, earning what she said far more than her day-job salary.
Juju's creator said each branded collaboration brings in at least 10,000 yuan (about 1,500 U.S. dollars), describing the production model as low-cost and high-yield.
The pet stories sit within a broader boom in AI-made dramas. China released nearly 550,000 micro-dramas -- short series often watched on phones -- from January to October, nearly 17 times the number released in all of 2025, said Cao Shumin, head of the National Radio and Television Administration.
AI-made productions accounted for more than 94 percent of the micro-dramas released this year, Cao said.
Research firm DataEye projects that China's market for AI-made series and animated dramas will reach 40 billion yuan this year, up 138 percent from 2025. It estimates that the sector had more than 500,000 practitioners and individual creators in the first half of 2026.
CREATIVITY AND GROWING PAINS
While AI helps generate the footage, the creators still see human storytelling as essential to keeping audiences interested.
Maoziqi writes every script himself. AI-generated storylines tend to follow rigid formulas and lack dramatic tension, he explained.
Yunmi's creator also drafts her own scripts, though she has begun testing AI for story ideas. With her cat's fictional world, personality and circle of friends now established, she finds AI more useful for suggesting possible topics.
Juju's creator likewise uses AI to develop outlines and expand ideas, but considers fully AI-written scripts inadequate.
Their experience points to the importance of character development and storytelling alongside the technology.
"Cuteness and novelty earn clicks, but sustained viewership hinges on rounded characters, compelling plots and emotional resonance," said Cao Long, an AI micro-drama director at China Mobile's Migu Digital Media.
Reaching audiences across platforms has also exposed creators to unauthorized reposting. Maoziqi recounted how an Instagram account reposted his work without consent and grew to 500,000 followers before being taken down following a copyright complaint.
Yunmi's creator said accounts reposting her videos on Instagram attracted more traffic than her own, and her complaints had not succeeded in getting the copies removed.
The wider industry faces similar questions about quality and rights protection. AI has opened new possibilities for creative expression in micro-dramas and helped cut costs and improve efficiency, but has also brought challenges for content quality and the protection of rights and interests, said Wang Xiaoliang, an official with the National Radio and Television Administration.
Popularity itself can bring pressure. Maoziqi said he had felt anxious lately: "Once too many people see your work, you start caring more and more about what others think."
He takes imitation more calmly. "In an era when the technology is available to everyone, I just need to do my own stuff well," he said. ■
