The man who makes artificial intelligence descend by hand

Mo isn’t the only comedian trying to imitate the style of AI-generated videos, but he really nails all the elements: the awkward physical movements, the off-kilter facial expressions, and the unexpected plot twist. Many viewers, myself included, were shocked by how accurately it captured the essence of AI-driven videos.

Mo told me that the six AI imitation videos he has filmed represent only a small portion of his acting career. He has wanted to be an actor since he was in university and spent the summer after his first year at Hengdian World Studios – the largest film studio in the world – looking for background acting opportunities. He started doing comedy sketches on Chinese social media in 2019, and content creation now takes up most of his time.

The success of his AI mock videos landed him a sponsorship deal from a Chinese AI company, which paid him 80,000 yuan (about $11,000) to produce two additional sketches to promote the company’s video model. This isn’t a bad gig, but I honestly expected Mu to get more opportunities with his global fame.

As part of the sponsorship, Mo shot two versions of the graphics, one with AI-generated footage and one without. He was secretly hoping the advertiser would choose the latter, because it puts human acting skills front and center. But the advertiser chose the one with artificial intelligence. “This kind of feels like it’s starting to steal jobs from human actors, doesn’t it?” Mo says.

Mu popped up on my timeline again last week when it released a sequel to its first AI mimicry series, this time mimicking videos created by Sora, OpenAI’s latest generative video tool. His new video is more subtle but still manages to show that annoying, unexplained feeling that has persisted even as AI videos have progressed.

Mo says there’s a constant battle going on as AI accelerates, but it’s not a battle between man and machine. Rather, the conflict is between humans and other humans creating AI models, with each side constantly trying to outdo the other. “We make fun of some of the flaws in AI, its weirdness and silliness, but AI creators are probably working on improving those flaws, too,” Mo says. “As you can see, this year’s AI actually looks more human.”

How to act like artificial intelligence

Before he drew his first sketch of an AI mimic in July 2024, Mo watched a lot of AI-based videos to study their common traits. He wanted to understand what kinds of mistakes AI often makes and then re-makes in its own scripts.

For example, when an object appears in the frame, the AI ​​often misunderstands what it is there for. For example, a hanger can be used to hang clothes, but it is also often the weapon of choice when parents in China physically punish their children. This double-wielding inspired another video by Mu last year, in which midway through pretending to hit his “son” with a hanger, the boy’s pants mysteriously come off, and Mu suddenly appears to have forgotten what he’s doing and decides to hang up the shorts instead.