Now available to rent: Your face

TL;DR: In China, ordinary people are licensing their faces on likeness catalog platforms for use in AI-generated content, typically making between $15 to $700 (sometimes per use). It could be a glimpse of a future where your face is monetized and treated like IP.

What happened: Anyone who wants to “rent” a face can browse by categories like age, gender, or even “type of face” (like “rugged” or “supermodel”), per Rest of World. As a licensee, you set prices based on different factors and how many uses you’re permitting.

The hot use case is for microdramas: the vertical video serials (with episodes typically one to two minutes long) that have taken China by storm—though they’re gaining ground in the US too. Over 128,000 microdramas were released in China in the first quarter of 2026. A massive 95% of them use AI, probably because it’s cheaper than hiring actors. And basing the AI clones on real faces means less homogenous-looking characters (something viewers on social media have apparently been grousing about).

The appeal for people renting out their faces: AI content firms are stealing people’s likenesses anyway (and not just those of famous celebrities)—so you might as well have some control over it and make some money in the process. In the city of Guangzhou, a court that deals with cyber-related lawsuits has heard about 700 cases of AI face theft in the last few years, according to a report from a national newspaper in China.

Face snatching gone global: Microdrama actors in the US also claim they’re seeing AI versions of their likeness appear in shows they never actually acted in. These roles are often nonunion jobs that give “broad editing permissions” to productions, according to an actress interviewed by Business Insider. Others have licensed their faces and voices to TikTok’s avatar tool for around $500 to $1,000 dollars (and regretted it.)

Is that even legal?: Many states have some kind of protection against using your likeness for commercial use without permission—and celebs like Matthew McConaughey and Taylor Swift have filed trademarks on their images and voices (all of McConaughey’s were granted). But it could be tough to prove an AI character stole your face, instead of it just being an uncanny coincidence.

Bottom line: AI makes it too easy to clone anyone’s appearance, whether it’s a top movie star or just your neighbor who posts a billion pictures online. And it could usher in a not-so-distant future where you treat your own face like a proprietary, licensable asset. —WK