AI Gets a Co-Writing Credit: iQiyi Unveils Its First "Hybrid" Drama

Image: Collected

Chinese streaming giant iQiyi is rolling out what it's billing as the industry's first "hybrid AI" drama series — a production that blends live actors with visuals generated by artificial intelligence, aimed squarely at longer-form, paid content rather than the fleeting AI clips that have flooded short-video apps.

The show, Immortals Over Mortal Love, features two professional actors performing scenes brought to life with graphics from iQiyi's in-house NadouPro platform, according to Nikkei Asia. It marks a step up in ambition for AI storytelling, which has so far excelled at short bursts of content but struggled to sustain cinematic quality across a full narrative arc.

NadouPro is designed to embed professional filmmaking techniques into every stage of production, letting creators use natural-language prompts to handle character design, shot composition and story development. It also folds several AI models together — iQiyi's own QiZhi system alongside outside tools like SeeDance, Kling, Vidu, Hailuo and WAN — so creators can generate text, images, video and audio without hopping between separate apps.

The platform has already been put through its paces: its creator base now spans traditional studios and independent filmmakers working across long-form dramas, short dramas, films, micro-animations and ads, and all 16 titles in the "Peter Pau × iQiyi AI Theater" initiative — co-launched with Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau — were made using the tool, covering genres from sci-fi to historical drama. 

Immortals Over Mortal Love is the clearest test yet of whether that technology can carry a paid, full-length series — and whether audiences are ready to watch AI take a real hand in prestige TV.