Hello, I'm your financial analysis assistant. This article, written by "Debater Li Muyang," is a very sharp and even somewhat pessimistic in tone, providing an in-depth review of the industry. The author, with a perspective that understands both technology and business logic, exposes the chaos in the current AI content sector (especially AI-generated short dramas and comics), ByteDance's monopolistic position, and the survival crisis facing ordinary people in the future.
To help you understand it easily, I have broken down this long article into a core summary and five dimensions of in-depth analysis.
---
📝 Core Content Summary
In one sentence:
Although the production of AI content is an inevitable trend, it has become a red ocean market with extremely low barriers to entry, fierce competition, and a dominance by giants. ByteDance has monopolized most of the profits through its technology and traffic, while ordinary creators and practitioners are facing the dual crises of being abandoned by algorithms and replaced by AI. The future competition will no longer be about "who acts faster" but about "who has the barriers." Moreover, the value distribution logic of society is shifting from "people-oriented" to "algorithm-based assets."
---
🔍 Five Dimensions of In-depth Analysis
1. Industry Truth: From the "Get Rich Quick" Myth to the Cruel Reality of Rising Costs
Over the past year, the most popular story in the AI community was: "Ordinary people can use AI to create content for just a few dollars per minute and earn tens of millions in a few days." This was similar to the "Bitcoin boom" or the "live streaming sales" phenomenon, a classic example of survivor bias marketing.
But the situation has changed in the past two months.
- Previously, the focus was on affordability: To attract newcomers, everyone emphasized low costs and high efficiency.
- Now, the focus is on high costs: Top-tier works are being advertised as costing up to 900,000 yuan per episode or several thousand dollars per minute.
Why has the story changed?
Because telling too many stories about affordability leads to two consequences:
1. Content devaluation: Audiences think AI-generated content is not worth money and are unwilling to pay for it.
2. Barriers are eliminated: If anyone can do it, countless people will enter the market, leading to overcapacity and price wars, with no one making a profit in the end.
Therefore, the top players are now creating barriers to deter opportunists and proving to the market that high-quality AI content is valuable. Remember this rule: When an industry starts to boast about high investment and high barriers, it usually means the early "easy money" era has ended, and a more competitive era based on resources and connections has begun.
2. Business Logic: The Law That AI Doesn't Make Money and the Death of Service Providers
The author makes a poignant point: When AI enters an industry, it often doesn't make that industry more profitable; instead, it makes it worse.
- The logic chain: AI reduces costs → Barriers are eliminated → Capacity explodes → Clients realize they can do the same work with AI and don't need to pay → Service providers cut prices desperately to secure business → Profits for the entire industry drop to zero.
- Who makes money? Only those who provide the tools and models (such as ByteDance, OpenAI, etc.) profit.
What does this mean for ordinary people?
The improvement in AI efficiency first eliminates service providers (outsourced jobs and lower-level tasks) and then threatens jobs in general. Ironically, many workers initially thought, "Wow, AI helps me write code, create content, or draw pictures—my efficiency has doubled!"
Wrong! If your efficiency doubles, it means one person can do what used to take ten people. Where do those nine people go? They get laid off. In a competitive market, thinking only about what you can do with AI is naive. You need to consider: "What can my competitors do with AI?" When everyone can produce high-quality content at low cost, your skills are no longer a competitive advantage.
3. Giant Competition: ByteDance's Invincibility and Its "Sin"
In the AI content sector, ByteDance (TikTok, Rednote, etc.) is currently almost invincible.
- Technological dominance: ByteDance's Seedance model has high training costs, leading technological advantages, and a large data feedback loop.
- Ecosystem monopoly: It controls the traffic entry points (Rednote short dramas, TikTok), creating a closed loop of production, distribution, and monetization. This situation is described as "completely dominating," with almost no rivals able to challenge it, except for government regulation.
However, ByteDance has significant concerns:
1. Creator resentment: ByteDance is very "cold-blooded" towards creators, changing rules frequently, applying double standards, and sacrificing partners in times of trouble. This makes creators angry but distrustful of the platform.
2. Algorithms' side effects: ByteDance's algorithmic recommendations favor low-quality, sensational content that captures users' attention, rather than in-depth or innovative content.
3. Ad value decline: As content quality declines and the audience becomes more basic, brand advertisers are losing interest in this traffic pool. To attract advertisers, ByteDance has to promote high-quality content, but this contradicts its algorithmic logic.
Conclusion: ByteDance is a powerful force, but it is destroying content diversity and putting itself in a position of having massive traffic with diluted value.
4. Social Impact: How Algorithms "Drown Out" Elite and Artistic Content
This part is very profound and touches on social structures:
- Algorithms as the judges: In the past, good content was spread through word of mouth and media recommendations. Now, algorithms are the sole judges, aiming to maximize user engagement time.
- Bad content dominating good: Most people prefer simple, stimulating, and emotional content. Algorithms amplify this type of content, drowning out elite content that requires deeper thought and creativity.
- Death of innovation: In China, the ROI of copying and cheating is higher than that of innovation because algorithms reward popular, not unique content. This means there's no shortage of talent, but a lack of an environment that fosters innovation.
In simpler terms: You write a deep script, but algorithms prefer AI-generated short dramas with cheesy plots. Your work goes unnoticed. In the long run, creators either join the trend and produce low-quality content or leave the industry, lowering the overall cultural standard.
5. Future Warning: The Shift from "Humanism" to "Algorithm-Based Assets"
This is the most alarming part of the article. The author believes we are at a historical turning point:
- Old logic fails: We used to think a good economy was due to people having money to spend. Now, it seems that as long as technology (AI, chips, etc.) looks promising, the numbers look good, even if ordinary people can't afford the products.
- Redefined human value: Humans used to be essential for production. In the future, AI may surpass humans in capability and produce independently.
- Power structure changes: The core assets will be algorithms, data, and computing power, not land or factories. In a world of automated weapons, the number of ordinary people becomes insignificant, and they may even become targets.
- The masses, being atomized, emotional, and entertained, will lose their collective power.
Advice for ordinary people:
Don't expect the government to create a utopia where you don't need to work. This dark period before dawn will be difficult to endure. Instead of worrying about AI destroying humanity (that's for science fiction), worry about whether you have the resources (wealth, connections, irreplaceability) to protect yourself when your skills become useless.
---
💡 Action Guide for Ordinary People (Based on the Article)
1. Stop fantasizing about getting rich quickly with AI: Don't believe the stories of earning millions in a few days. AI is a tool, not a money-making machine.
2. Build non-AI-based barriers: Since AI can improve efficiency, your competitiveness should come from areas AI can't cover: unique judgment, strong interpersonal relationships, valuable information in niche fields, or excellent aesthetic taste.
3. Be wary of platform dependence: Don't put all your eggs in one basket (ByteDance or any giant platform). Diversify your distribution and build a personal brand, as platform rules can change, and platform interests always outweigh those of creators.
4. Enhance your judgment: Executiveness may be replaced by AI, but the ability to make informed decisions is hard to replace. Gain experience and think critically to develop intuition.
5. Prepare for a world without a single skill or platform: Start accumulating assets that are not dependent on a single skill or platform (cash, property, connections, health), in case of sudden social changes.
In summary: In the AI era, "speed" is no longer important; "accuracy" and stability are. "Quantity" is no longer important; "quality" is. "Obedience" is no longer important; "independence" is.