Bilibili Host Stages First AI Spring Festival Gala, Drawing Over 10 Million Views

An AI-generated Spring Festival Gala, orchestrated by Bilibili popular science host "Qiuzhi 2046," premiered on February 7, accumulating more than 10 million views. The event featured over 30 Bilibili hosts, AI companies, and hundreds of production personnel, presenting a 90-minute program created entirely with artificial intelligence.

Elderly farmer inspecting a piece of Iron Man armor scrap in a rural setting.

The gala showcased a variety of AI-generated content, blending social commentary with internet memes. One segment, created by host "Mijun," depicted a rural elder discovering and dismantling Iron Man for scrap, selling the parts for a high profit. This video alone garnered 2.57 million views.

Another highlight was a 9-minute AI film by "Turing Test Failed," which portrayed a fantastical New Year's Eve battle between the human form of the Snake Year Beast and Ma Biao, the human manifestation of the Horse Year. This film achieved 2.47 million views. The battle incorporated numerous Bilibili memes, such as the Snake Year Beast's "snake-like movement" from MOBA games and Ma Biao’s transformation into Ma Baoguo to perform a "Pine Cone Trembling Lightning Whip." The creator framed the Year Beast as an ordinary entity silently protecting people during the transition into the new year.

Fantastical AI-generated battle between Snake Year Beast and Ma Biao.

AI-Generated Digital Humans and Viral Content

ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 video generation model has been used to create highly realistic digital humans. A creator known as "Baibai Hotpot Doesn't Eat Spicy" produced a video featuring a girl in loungewear explaining her AI origins, with all visuals, sounds, expressions, and movements generated from text descriptions. This video received 23,000 likes on Xiaohongshu.

Highly realistic AI-generated digital human in loungewear, explaining her origins.

Seedance 2.0 is currently undergoing internal testing in ByteDance products such as Jiemeng, Doubao, and Xiaoyunque. Its multimodal input and reference capabilities enable the generation of cinematic AI videos. For instance, creator "RioAIGC" utilized Xiaoyunque AI to generate a Shaw Brothers-style Dragon Ball fight scene, replicating the aesthetic, character designs, and fast-paced editing of Shaw Brothers films. This video has over 2.67 million views on X.

"Dayuanjing Science Popularization" also used Seedance 2.0 for their Bilibili work, "Cholera: Ghosts on the Map and a Scientific Rebellion," which has accumulated over 4 million views and reached the 7th position on Bilibili's site-wide ranking.

AI-generated Shaw Brothers-style Dragon Ball fight scene.

"Empresses in the Palace" Gender-Swapped by AI

The 2026 viral phenomenon "Male Empresses in the Palace" on Weibo saw creator "Zhen Dian" gender-swap characters from the popular drama "Empresses in the Palace." Consort Hua, for example, became "Lord Hua," retaining her original features and domineering personality but appearing in modern CEO attire with a deep voice. Netizens reacted positively, with one remarking, "I finally understand why the Emperor always forgave Consort Hua."

AI-generated 'Lord Hua' in modern CEO attire, a gender-swapped Consort Hua.

One adaptation recreated a scene where Xia Dongchun bullies An Lingrong. In the AI version, a red-haired nouveau riche character, "Siji Di," is punished by Lord Hua and hung on a maple tree. The video, created using Jiemeng AI 3.5 Pro, features natural expressions, movements, voice acting, and lip-syncing. The series has 11 episodes and has accumulated 100 million views.

Previously, "Zhen Dian" created series where "Empresses in the Palace" characters traveled to parallel universes, including Titanic, Journey to the West, and Romance in the Rain, as well as a non-mainstream version of "Empress Zhen Huan Ascends the Throne," attracting nearly 400,000 followers on Douyin.

Surreal road sign integrated into an unexpected environment, symbolizing reality disruption.

AI Short Film "SIGN" Gains Millions of Likes

Following the success of "ARROW," creator "DiDi_OK" released another AI short film titled "SIGN." This film depicts a world where road signs dictate reality. Everyday life is disrupted by absurd signs; for example, cows slide down mountains, roads become slippery, and sinkholes appear.

The government cordons off affected areas and advises residents to stay indoors. However, a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" sign appears in the sky, causing humans to lose their speech and text to become garbled. The world descends into chaos, with humans communicating via emojis before eventually landing on Mars to replace the mysterious question mark sign with one pointing forward.

Humans erecting a 'forward' sign on Mars, replacing a 'question mark' sign.

This AI work has garnered over 10 million views on Bilibili and more than 1 million likes on Douyin. "DiDi_OK" stated that the signs possess an "honesty" and serve as a warning against human curiosity.