Stories we no longer ask for

Chyung Eun-ju

As a new year begins, debates about artificial intelligence (AI) often focus on what machines will replace next. Actors, writers, even creativity itself are framed as being under threat. Yet the rise of AI-made short dramas suggests a different question that may be more urgent, which involves understanding not what AI is taking from us, but what kind of viewers we have already become.

In an era where quantity of content seems to prevail over quality, what makes the rise of AI-produced short dramas particularly striking is not the sophistication of the technology itself, but the audience’s reaction — or lack thereof. Stories created with minimal human performance, synthetic expressions and automated production pipelines have entered mainstream platforms with little resistance. This quietness of this transition, whether deliberate or not, suggests that the shift may have less to do with artificial intelligence becoming more convincingly human-like, and more to do with viewers growing accustomed to consuming narratives with less attachment, less engagement and fewer expectations.

Joel Cho

In recent months, a lot of viewers probably had contact with audiovisual drama content presented in a new format adapted to social media platforms. Korean content producers have become early adopters of this shift, turning to artificial intelligence to produce microdramas faster and cheaper. These short dramas are presented as vertical videos designed for mobile viewing, reflecting a shift in consumer content consumption patterns. They are gaining popularity not only in Korea but also internationally, where mobile-first viewing dominates.

Platforms such as Vigloo have released short dramas produced almost entirely with artificial intelligence, using mannequins instead of actors and relying on AI to generate facial expressions and movements. These productions significantly reduce costs and shorten production time. Yet efficiency alone does not explain their smooth acceptance. What is more telling is that few viewers seem to feel any real sense of loss in the absence of human performers.

Short-form dramas did not emerge as a new artistic genre. They emerged to fit a lifestyle — and, more pointedly, a market logic. Designed for mobile screens and consumed in fragmented moments throughout the day, they demand little emotional commitment. Depth is not required. Speed is essential. In this format, realism becomes secondary, and repetition is normal. What seems to matter is scalability, not artistic integrity. Artificial intelligence blends in because the format itself no longer asks for much, least of all from human creativity.

This reflects a broader change in the role of the viewer. Short dramas are rarely watched with patience or expectation. They are consumed quickly and replaced just as quickly. When storytelling becomes a form of background consumption, the question of who performs begins to matter less than whether the content keeps moving. AI does not challenge this trend; it follows it.

This does not mean that human creativity is becoming irrelevant. It means that creativity is being sorted. Stories that require time, emotional investment and memory still rely on human presence. At the same time, an increasing portion of entertainment is optimized for volume and speed. Artificial intelligence fills that space because we created it.

As artificial intelligence continues to enter entertainment this year, the issue may not be whether machines can tell stories. The issue may be whether we are still willing to slow down enough to care who tells them.

Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@snu.ac.kr) is a tech research associate at Donghyun ASP. She earned both her bachelor's in business and master's in marketing from Seoul National University. Joel Cho (joelywcho@gmail.com) is a practicing lawyer specializing in IP and digital law.