iQiyi Inc. founder and CEO Gong Yu recently spoke at the second China TV Production Industry Conference, delivering a speech themed "Spring for the Film and Television Industry." Gong Yu shared his insights on topics including the transformation and opportunities AI brings to the film and television sector, the decentralization of streaming platforms and the enhancement of public services, and evolving cooperation models between platforms and creators. The following are key points from his address:

※ AI is Certain to Cause Disruptive Industry Change: Lower Costs, More Creators, Increased Output Technological innovation in AI will inevitably lead to significant changes, which can be summarized by a "One-One-Two Rule." Firstly, the cost per unit of content will decrease by one order of magnitude. Whether for one minute, one episode, or one full series, costs will drop to one-tenth, one-fifteenth, one-twentieth, or even one-thirtieth of their previous levels. Secondly, the number of creators will increase by at least one order of magnitude, growing by 10, 15, or 20 times compared to before. Thirdly, the volume of content produced will increase by at least two orders of magnitude, with AI driving output growth of 100, 300, or even 500 times. Consequently, the industry is bound to undergo disruptive changes. A large influx of creators will emerge, leading to a substantial increase in content volume. This will be followed by a surge in audience attention, truly ushering in a spring season for the industry.

※ Building Creator and User Communities: Four Major Shifts in Platform Decentralization Under the trend of decentralization, four important changes will occur: First, the brands and intellectual property (IP) of creators and their companies will become more prominent, with IP rights firmly remaining in the hands of the creators and their firms. Second, creators will possess more private traffic, with audiences focusing on the creator's content, brand, and persona, thereby building trust relationships. Third, interaction between creators and users will become more direct. Feedback that was previously directed towards platforms via comments or bullet chats will in the future be aimed directly at creators, with platforms serving merely as a conduit connecting both parties. Fourth, content decision-making will gradually shift from platforms (B2B) to consumers (B2C). This will be a transitional process, implemented step by step rather than all at once.

※ Platforms Comprehensively Enhancing Public Services Across the Entire Industry Chain Platforms will全面提升 their role as public service providers across the entire content lifecycle, from production and operation to distribution and monetization. First, by developing professional AI agents for film and television creation. These agents can handle complete tasks—given instructions and past experiences, they can work autonomously and deliver phased results. iQiyi Inc. is currently testing an internal AI agent: Naidou Pro. Its core purpose is to facilitate professional film and television production. While it is not yet possible to produce an entire series using an AI agent alone, production processes can be broken down, allowing the agent to complete tasks for individual segments one by one, which is a primary value of large language models. Second, by building powerful creation and operation platforms, such as iQiyi Inc.'s "iQiyi Hao." In the future, tasks from content publishing and traffic monitoring to revenue statistics, audience profiling, and providing creative suggestions will be handled by AI agents instead of manual labor, significantly boosting creation and operational efficiency. Beyond this, platforms will continue to承担 responsibilities such as media operations and content distribution services. This includes assisting creators with IP selection and acquisition, and providing support services like IP, funding, and script evaluation. It also involves relying on players to deliver the "hard service" of content distribution, enabling convenient viewing on hundreds of millions of devices, and performing "soft services" like promotion and operation. Furthermore, it is the platform's responsibility to fairly and reasonably distribute various revenue streams—including membership fees, advertising revenue, and derivative products like theme parks—to content creators.

※ AI Content Production: Starting with Mid-Length and Short-Form Series, Then Challenging Films and Variety Shows AI implementation will begin with online featurettes, mid-length series, short-form series, and animation. These areas present lower technical challenges and align closely with the key promotion directions of the TV drama department this year. Subsequently, AI will gradually tackle traditional live-action theatrical films, series, and variety show content. These represent the core value of the current film and television industry and are the primary carriers of IP.

※ Platform-Producer Cooperation Will Gradually Shift Towards a Revenue Sharing Model The cooperation model between platforms and production studios will gradually migrate towards a revenue-sharing structure, which will become the dominant approach. The proportion of content operating on a pure revenue-sharing basis will increasingly grow. This will be followed by pure revenue-sharing combined with minor platform investment (e.g., in computing power or IP), then a smaller number of projects involving a platform minimum guarantee plus revenue sharing, and finally, platform self-produced content. The share of platform self-produced content will become progressively lower in the future. This trend towards decentralized transactions is inevitable.

In conclusion, Gong Yu summarized the key points of his speech: First, while AI will lead to a great enrichment of film and television content, the most valuable asset remains IP. Second, media platforms are undergoing a decentralization transformation to provide public services. Third, the core categories for AI in film and television production today are still movies, series, animation, and variety shows, which remain the foundation of the industry. Fourth, the cooperation model between producers and platforms is shifting towards revenue sharing, becoming the dominant method. Finally, the essence returns to creativity itself—ideas and art.