Is Half of China’s AI Making Slop?

The article examines the viral claim that 55% of China's AI tokens go to short dramas and video generation, tracing it to a June 2026 COL Group investor call and noting ByteDance's public challenge that video generation is only about 10% of its own computing capacity. It argues the controversy reflects a Chinese social obsession with usefulness, in which AI slop offers escape from constant productivity pressure while the shame attached to enjoying it reproduces that same pressure.