China's Media Regulator Reaches Industry Consensus on AI Face and Voice Cloning Rights

China's National Radio and Television Administration convened 17 major streaming platforms and production studios—including iQIYI, Tencent, Youku, and Kuaishou—to establish guidelines for AI face-swapping and voice-cloning in short audio-visual dramas. The meeting established an industry consensus that any AI-generated image or voice synthesis must strictly require explicit authorization from the original rights holder. As generative AI tools lower the barrier to producing micro-dramas, streaming platforms need clear compliance boundaries to avoid mass copyright and personality rights infringement lawsuits. This consensus sets a regulatory precedent for full-lifecycle risk control across China's fast-growing digital entertainment sector. The consensus outlines three core principles: enforcing mandatory explicit authorization, evaluating infringement based on context and platform review duties, and embedding end-to-end risk management from pre-authorization to traceable post-production archiving. Platforms will be required to implement automated technical screening alongside manual reviews to catch unauthorized AI cloning.