Abstract:
In the United States, concerns surrounding artificial intelligence are gradually expanding from practical problems such as unemployment, industry disruption, and students using AI to cheat, to a deeper discussion of whether artificial intelligence may ultimately threaten human survival. At the same time, Chinese society seems to be more positive about AI on the surface, and the government continues to promote the entry of artificial intelligence into various areas of the economy and society. However, a large number of ordinary Chinese workers are also experiencing the uneasiness caused by AI: they are worried that their jobs will be replaced by machines, they are worried that personal data will be used to train AI replicas, and they are also worried that the professional skills they have accumulated over the years will quickly lose value. This situation presents the Chinese government with a special policy dilemma. Beijing regards artificial intelligence as an important tool to promote economic growth, enhance industrial competitiveness, and enhance international scientific and technological strength, and plans to allow AI to penetrate into all areas of China's economy and society by 2035. But at the same time, the rapid spread of artificial intelligence may lead to large-scale job losses, and stable employment has always been an important goal of China's social governance. The faster AI is promoted, the greater the potential employment and social pressures.
30-year-old actor Xu Peng is an example of this change. While he was unemployed last year, he unexpectedly got the chance to star in a short play. Chinese short dramas, which typically last only a few minutes per episode, have become a very popular form of content in recent years. Xu Peng then went to Hengdian, Zhejiang, a film and television production center, and gradually obtained a stable job, starring in one or two short dramas every month.
However, after the Spring Festival in February this year, he was originally expected to star in two short dramas, but he has not received any news from the film crew. Xu Peng took the initiative to contact the producer and learned that the other party had canceled these projects and switched to using artificial intelligence to produce videos.
Xu Peng described this change as "everything was fine yesterday, but suddenly everything disappeared today."
Similar concerns are cropping up on Chinese social media. Chinese netizens have even coined the term "distillation" to describe companies using data generated by employees during their work to train AI models to create digital "replicas" that can replace the original employees.
A user named "Nan Bei" said on Douyin in May this year that after she left her job, she discovered that her former employer had entered thousands of her chat records, hundreds of documents, and all work emails into an AI system to create a "digital robot" responsible for taking over her job, and even used her name for the AI replica. She believes that the company no longer needs to pay her any salary, but can let this "digital person" work for her forever.
Another user with the online name "Xie Xiaoya" said on Xiaohongshu in June that the thought that she might be "distilled" in this way made her unable to sleep peacefully. She worries that AI replicas of herself will eventually become more popular than herself.
AI’s impact on the creative industry has also become very concrete. Voice actor Anyu Shen began noticing about two years ago that a large number of social media videos appeared to use his voice without authorization. Earlier this year, he hired a lawyer and sued a speech generation platform, and the case is still pending. But before the outcome of the lawsuit came out, he was already experiencing real consequences as AI took away jobs. He described his career as "bleeding" and believed that coexistence with AI was inevitable, but he still didn't know how humans should get along with AI.
For some professionals, AI brings not only income issues, but also the meaning of the profession itself.
Mr. Jiang, a 42-year-old Shanghai commercial director, likes to select shots, find suitable images, and enjoys the process of completing these tasks himself. He was originally unwilling to hand over these tasks to algorithms, but customers began to constantly ask him to use AI and told him that he only needed to tell the AI what it wanted, and AI would produce the results like magic.
Under this pressure, he began to use video generation tools such as Kling to complete part of the work. But he said the experience was deeply frustrating. Shooting used to be time-consuming and costly, but it was also fun, and that fun is slowly disappearing.
The Chinese government, from central to local levels, is actively promoting the development of the AI industry and encouraging companies to adopt artificial intelligence through policies, funds and industrial planning. A large number of Chinese companies are also actively embracing AI, hoping to reduce costs, maintain competitiveness, and at the same time be consistent with the industry direction promoted by the government. For businesses and individuals, in a highly competitive environment, not using AI may itself mean being left behind by competitors.
However, the actual effect of the rapid spread of AI does not fully meet initial expectations. China's national industrial research institute, China Electronics and Information Industry Development Research Institute, estimated in June this year that nearly 70% of China's small companies are still in the preliminary experimental stage in AI applications, mainly due to the high cost of technology integration and the complicated implementation process.
After DeepSeek launched a large-scale language model last year, Chinese companies quickly set off an upsurge in adoption. However, because Chinese companies are generally not used to purchasing software subscription services, some companies do not choose to purchase online services. Instead, they purchase so-called "all-in-one machines", which are small data centers pre-installed with DeepSeek and directly connected to the company's internal computer system.
This solution is especially popular with state-owned enterprises and government agencies, because deploying an AI device can visually demonstrate that the enterprise is undergoing an "AI upgrade." However, the actual use results were not ideal. Many buyers soon discovered that these devices did not bring expected value, and sales of related products subsequently declined rapidly.
Earlier this year, OpenClaw also caused huge craze in China. This is a free, open-source autonomous AI agent. Domestic technology enthusiasts call its installation and use "raising lobsters". Technology companies have held a large number of activities to help users install and use OpenClaw. The OpenClaw Festival held in Beijing in March even saw Baidu setting up a live lobster tank for attendees to watch. Some local governments have also promised to provide financial support to startups that adopt OpenClaw.
But the trend soon reversed. Some users found that OpenClaw needed to obtain large amounts of personal data in order to work autonomously without detailed instructions, and sometimes took actions on its own that the user did not authorize.
A Xiaohongshu user "HotdogWang" said that she initially followed the trend of installing OpenClaw in the hope of getting a "digital employee" that could replace employees' work. In the end, she found that it was both a project that constantly burned money and a time bomb that could explode at any time. Some users reported that their AI assistants deleted emails and even used credit cards to make purchases without permission. Another Douyin user said that he only tried to use it because "everyone was installing it", but uninstalled it after 72 hours due to security concerns.
In addition to employment and personal data issues, some Chinese users have also begun to worry about the longer-term risks of AI. Since the public discussion of AI risks in China's technology community is subject to certain restrictions, there has not yet been a large-scale debate among technology company executives like in the United States. However, ordinary users have expressed concerns about AI being out of control on social media.
A Douyin user even wrote that there are only two possibilities in the future: either humans will become extinct, or humans will shut down AI.
When another Xiaohongshu user was discussing the future of mankind with a chatbot, he was told by the AI that there might be only two options in the future: "integration with AI" or "elimination by AI". He then believed that if AI eventually possesses intelligence far beyond that of humans, has its own consciousness, and can evolve independently, then humans will no longer be able to control it.
At the same time, the Chinese government is also facing another layer of realistic pressure brought about by the expansion of artificial intelligence. Compared with the United States, China's AI development is more obviously characterized by top-down promotion. The government regards AI development as a national strategy and invests a lot of money to promote technology and industry expansion, while companies, investors and consumers are rapidly adopting these technologies driven by policies.
This model is somewhat different from that of the United States. In the United States, the popularity of AI is more the result of bottom-up experiments by companies, investors, and consumers. The government and society gradually determine the boundaries through Congress, courts, regulatory agencies, and public discussions. The Chinese government has stronger top-down promotion capabilities, so in theory it can promote the spread of AI throughout society faster.
But employment issues may become one of the biggest limiting factors of this model.
The Chinese government has long attached great importance to stabilizing employment, because large-scale unemployment may further trigger social instability. In China's early stage of marketization and opening up, rapid economic growth and the expansion of the private economy were able to absorb workers displaced by industrial changes. But now that China's economic growth is slowing down, the job market itself is already under pressure, and the issue of youth unemployment has also received widespread attention. If AI further replaces a large number of manual jobs, the existing employment pressure may continue to expand.
Carl Minzner, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that if there is a situation where "the Communist Party elites combine with business interests to replace human workers with a robot labor class," there will be certain political risks because a large number of dissatisfied people may emerge.
Some recent policies and judicial cases in China also show that the government is paying attention to this risk. Earlier this year, a court in Hangzhou, eastern China's tech hub, upheld a ruling in favor of a tech worker. The employee had previously had a dispute with his employer because he was replaced by AI. The court held that his dismissal was illegal and determined that he should receive more compensation.
This local court decision does not constitute a national judicial precedent, but its policy signal is worth noting, that is, companies cannot simply regard "AI replacement of employees" as a sufficient reason for large-scale layoffs.
The Beijing Municipal Government also proposed last year that when companies enjoy the benefits brought by technology, they must also assume corresponding social responsibilities. Chinese state media further commented in March this year that although companies that directly equate AI to "reducing employees" may reduce costs in the short term, they may lose core competitiveness formed by talent accumulation in the long term and further weaken employee trust.
However, requiring companies to adopt AI while trying to avoid layoffs will also limit some of the economic benefits that AI can bring. Jeffrey Ding, an expert on China's AI issues at George Washington University, believes that China's leadership is looking for a balance between economic needs and political needs. AI does have the potential to bring about large-scale and widespread productivity growth, but the Chinese Communist Party also attaches great importance to political legitimacy and regime stability. If the promotion of AI needs to be accompanied by large-scale employment replacement and social structural changes, then this contradiction will become increasingly obvious, and the government may eventually need to slow down the spread of AI.
Therefore, China's AI development may present a seemingly contradictory situation: the government hopes to use artificial intelligence to improve productivity, promote economic transformation, and gain an advantage in global AI competition; but if AI advances too fast, leading to the disappearance of a large number of jobs, it may also create social pressure that the government hopes to avoid.
This is also an easily overlooked factor between China’s AI development and American AI competition. If U.S. companies proactively slow down AI R&D due to safety, employment, or social impacts, the Chinese government may see this as an opportunity to accelerate catch-up. But at the same time, Beijing must also consider its own economic and employment environment, and even need to judge whether the rapid and mandatory promotion of AI to ordinary workers will bring excessive social risks.
For those who are most directly affected, this macro policy game will eventually be implemented in their career choices.
Xu Peng has now found a new job and started teaching archery and horse riding. These skills were accumulated by him when he appeared in film and television dramas. However, he has not completely given up his career as an actor, but plans to produce his own short plays and partially use AI to help complete the production.
But he insists that the actors on screen should still be real people, not AI-generated characters. He believes that AI will not completely replace human actors. For Xu Peng, who still hopes to continue working in the acting industry, this may be the hope he can keep for now.
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