As a new year begins, debates about artificial intelligence (AI) often focus on what machines will replace next. Actors, writers, even creativity itself are framed as being under threat. Yet the rise of AI-made short dramas suggests a different question that may be more urgent, which involves understanding not what AI is taking from us, but what kind of viewers we have already become. In an era where quantity of content seems to prevail over quality, what makes the rise of AI-produced short dramas particularly striking is not the sophistication of the technology itself, but the audience’s reaction — or lack thereof. Stories created with minimal human performance, synthetic expressions and automated production pipelines have entered mainstream platforms with little resistance. This quietness of this transition, whether deliberate or not, suggests that the shift may have less to do with artificial intelligence becoming more convincingly human-like, and more to do with viewers growing accustomed to consuming narratives with less attachment, less engagement and fewer expectations. In r