For a long time, my workflow has involved mixing Chinese and US AI services. The main issue is that Chinese AI has sensitive word filtering and political censorship, which causes me a lot of headaches. I do not want to waste time modifying politically sensitive words. My goal is to achieve fully automated creation processes by 2026, where I only handle creativity and the entire production process is completed automatically by AI without my intervention. So far, I have implemented code for all functional modules. I have also introduced some automated production steps in the production phase. Honestly, the results have been very good and have greatly improved my creation efficiency. However, the last mile problem still bothers me. That is, if I fully automate video creation, I need an AI with very high image generation quality, low price, and basically no need for manual review. Or I can intervene in reviews, but since one of my videos uses dozens or even hundreds of images, if one third need regeneration, the pressure on my wallet would be quite high. I found that foreign platforms, even Grok which is known for cost-effectiveness, are still somewhat expensive.
But recently many things happened that forced me to shift the main production steps to domestic AI services. This unexpectedly opened a window for me. Even facing the trouble of content review, the cost-effectiveness of Chinese AI is still far superior to foreign AI. First, Microsoft’s engineers messed up the originally stable AI voice service. It had serious bugs that lasted for one month without being fixed. I was forced to remove it from my workflow. But my channel’s audience has a strong dependence on the previous voice timbre and emotional style. Even switching to Google TTS would make nearly over 40% of people unable to accept it. However, I used the open-source AI voice model VoxCPM from China’s Tsinghua University. Surprisingly, after spending two or three days refactoring the generation script, it worked stably on both PC and Mac. It perfectly met the channel users’ requirements for humorous voice. This AI is very small in size and runs smoothly on my mid-range configured equipment. Its effects have also received consistent recognition from the audience, and it is free. Paired with the 30B large model I built locally, for the first time I can fully use a Chinese AI workflow. Even my main editing software is CapCut from China’s ByteDance.
However, all this is just the beginning. When I started trying more Huawei domestic devices and software, I was surprised to find that Huawei’s operating system and AI can greatly improve my creation efficiency. The AI large models provided by companies like ByteDance and Alibaba not only have extremely low prices but also excellent quality and high production efficiency. Even creating in Huawei’s ecosystem, the meaning of full automation is no longer that significant because in such an ecosystem I play the role of a scheduler. Most work does not require my intervention. Huawei’s Xiaoyi AI can provide powerful productivity on both the device side and the cloud, helping me complete most creation steps at low cost or even close to zero cost. As a long-term supporter of the Apple ecosystem, I even started to waver. Honestly, it is hard for me to believe that Apple’s chips, with process technology leading Huawei by several generations, provide a creation experience that is actually inferior to an ordinary Huawei laptop. If Huawei’s system-level AI service experience scores 90 points, Apple’s score is failing. Huawei’s story is very big. I do not want to expand on it here. Its Ascend computing card, at a price of less than 2000 US dollars, can provide powerful strength for smooth local 70B large models. I have even added it to my shopping cart. It is hard for me to imagine any reason to buy a 4000 US dollar Mac Studio.
But yesterday, after trying ByteDance’s Doubao AI full suite of services, I paused my plan to upgrade the local AI workflow. Because I was shocked by its creation cost and quality. Its Doubao AI assistant can communicate directly with me in a nearly human-like experience. Its realism is top-notch. Moreover, the images it automatically generates according to my video scripts perfectly meet my creation needs. Without any effort on my part, I generated a large number of images in a short time. It did not throttle or pause my requests. So I registered for Volcano Engine, which is ByteDance’s official AI service access platform, and found that its image generation price is less than one tenth of Grok’s. I specifically asked the neutral Gemini to calculate it. The result it gave was that the costs are not on the same level. If using Doubao’s image engine, creation quality can be guaranteed. From a video producer’s perspective, there is no need to waste time calculating consumed tokens at all. So on the first day of 2026, I gave up dining with family and stayed home alone frantically experiencing Doubao’s AI large model. For me, this feeling is very good.
Recently, because US AI giants bought too many chips, causing memory and SSD prices to skyrocket, there are also rumors that Nvidia will reduce production of consumer-grade graphics cards. This makes our wallet suffer seriously when updating computers. But I am also thinking that if we are good at discovering cheap and practical Chinese AI services and try more, while they are grabbing market share, fully utilizing their low-cost computing services is far better than spending several thousand US dollars to build local AI models.
Of course, because my main channel has a lot of politically sensitive content, when using Chinese AI services it inevitably suffers from speech review harassment. But I believe 90% of creators have nothing to do with politics at all. I think everyone can consider buying a VPN to connect to China and use Chinese AI services. Especially ByteDance and Alibaba’s services, I think the cost-effectiveness is extremely high and the output quality is top-notch. If there are data confidentiality requirements or interest in the HarmonyOS ecosystem, you can buy it first thing after Huawei releases overseas devices. You will experience a completely different world.
In previous videos, I mentioned that China’s Keling AI sells very well in the international market. Its improvement to productivity is visible to the naked eye and the cost-effectiveness is very high. But honestly, compared to ByteDance’s products, there is still a gap. ByteDance has strong strength and often appears as a price butcher in market battles. Now is indeed a good time for everyone to actively try it. I have already recharged the Volcano Engine API and will introduce it into the creation of non-political videos. Specific usage experience, I will share with everyone after the automated video production line is completed. This channel focuses on AI, blockchain, digital nomads and related topics, discusses online earning insights, updates irregularly. Everyone is welcome to subscribe, leave comments and discuss. Also welcome to the MrHunzi channel to discuss political topics with me.