(header image source: Wikipedia) Hangzhou, China
In the midst of the ongoing AI boycott by the IDV community as they impatiently wait on a response by NetEase, a little over a week ago, a court in China ruled it was illegal to fire a worker who was being replaced by AI.
According to Xinhua, a worker only known by the name, Zhou, had been working for his company since November 2022 as a quality assurance supervisor. His tasks had included matching user queries with large language models and filtering illegal content to ensure accurate output by AI models. He was earning a salary of 300,000 yuan ($43,900).
However, his job was taken over by AI large language models, and the company tried to reassign Zhou to a lower level position with a reduced salary of 40%. When he refused, the company terminated his contract citing organizational restructuring and reduced staffing needs. They did offer him a severance package worth around 306,033 yuan ($45,000).
Zhou contested the sum and sought higher compensation through arbitration and the arbitration panel supported Zhou’s claim for additional compensation. The company then filed a lawsuit with a district court in Hangzhou in August 2025 and later appealed to the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
Hangzhou is a hub of AI in China’s Zhejiang province. It is home to the headquarters of NetEase actually.
At the heart of this case was whether a company could use AI as an excuse to lay off human workers.
A quote from the court as published by NPR states:
“The termination grounds cited by the company did not fall under negative circumstances such as business downsizing or operational difficulties, nor did they meet the legal condition that made it ‘impossible to continue the employment contract.”
This case is among several labor disputes due to the rise of AI replacing jobs across China. This is nothing new as the Chinese government themselves back up the spread of AI driven jobs through its “AI Plus” initiative which hopes to implement AI more deeply in just about everything from economic and social development.
Now, what does this mean for Identity V and its artists? Well, it is good that the cases brought to court have ruled in favor of the workers who sought rightful compensation for wrongful termination based on being replaced with AI.
However, in the case of Zhou, there is no stare decisis in China which basically just means courts do not have to follow the precedent for cases set forth by other courts and thus they do not have to follow the decision made by those court officials.
Still, take heart in the fact that there are courts and experts out there who do believe human beings cannot be pulled away from their jobs due to AI integration. While it is disheartening to see AI slowly but surely trickle into creative fields, the work and creativity put forth by human hands are still being protected by those who do have power.
Continue to hold steadfastly onto hope and not give up even if NetEase continues to stay silent on this matter.
Sources and Further Reading:
Futurism | Chinese Court Rules That a Worker Cannot Be Replaced by AI
China.org.cn | New AI-related jobs emerge amid China’s innovation drive
China.org.cn | Chinese court defends labor rights in new AI-replacement case
