Asia-Pacific

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how industrial structures, cultural formations and governance regimes shape AI deployment across Asia-Pacific screen industries. It argues that Korea and Japan have built export-oriented, IP-centric ecosystems where AI extends K-pop, webtoon and anime franchises while preserving creator visibility and fan cultures. China is examined as a contrasting platform-state model, embedding AI in super-app streaming, recommendation, surveillance and moderation within a tightly regulated information environment. Australia and New Zealand are positioned as service-production hubs that use AI mainly for technical productivity, visual effects, games and post-production inside global pipelines. This chapter traces the rise of virtual idols, VTubers and synthetic performers, highlighting divergent cultural logics of authenticity and parasociality. It maps AI’s role in drama, animation, games and live-service ecosystems, emphasizing recommendation, analytics, automation and generative tools as cross-cutting layers. DeepSeek is analyzed as a flagship Chinese large language models whose “frugal frontier” model challenges Western cost structures while encoding China-centric data and governance logics. Using the Seven As framework—Attention, Abundance, Acceleration, Automation, Adoption, Augmentation and Authenticity—this chapter shows how AI intensifies asymmetries between regional IP engines, smaller markets and global platforms, and argues that AI operates as infrastructural and governance power rather than a purely technical innovation.