A Chinese lab recently unveiled another astonishingly powerful and astonishingly cheap artificial intelligence model. GLM-5.2, produced by Z.ai, is almost as good as Anthropic\u2019s latest model but runs at less than a tenth of its price.<\/p>\n
The A.I. race between the U.S. and China has been front of mind at the highest levels of government in both countries.<\/p>\n
But creating the most potent model is not the only \u2014 and maybe not even the best \u2014 way to measure A.I. success. Today I write about an area that\u2019s had less attention, but where China might well have an edge: managing the human and political fallout from the A.I. revolution.<\/p>\n
Robotaxis and A.I. Marxism<\/p>\n
If there is one thing China\u2019s Communist Party fears, it\u2019s a restive proletariat.<\/p>\n
In Wuhan, the world\u2019s largest open-air laboratory for driverless cars, taxi drivers first complained<\/a> about the growing fleet of robotaxis two years ago. Petitions were filed. Social media posts were hashtagged. The local outcry was noisy.<\/p>\n It focused minds in the party, which reacted swiftly to censor the protests online. But it also set off a bigger rethink of something that worries many in the West, too. How to avoid mass displacement of humans by A.I. in the labor market \u2014 and the political backlash that comes with it?<\/p>\n China has more experience than most countries with automating jobs. More than two million robots work in its factories. Driverless delivery vans roam many of its cities. Service robots attend to guests in hotels and restaurants. Parking-lot robots swap out dying E.V. batteries. Drones deliver lunch.<\/p>\n So far the fallout has been mostly among blue-collar workers. But A.I. is primarily threatening college graduates. And for an authoritarian regime that fears political instability, that\u2019s a group that has historically caused trouble.<\/p>\n Which is why China\u2019s goal to become the world\u2019s A.I. superpower is now officially twinned with another one: keeping humans at the core of the A.I. economy. And over the past year, the government has started acting more decisively to make that happen.<\/p>\n \u2018Liberating labor,\u2019 one court case at a time<\/p>\n When the Communist Party wants to show it really means something, it puts it in a five-year plan. And on Page 72 of its current five-year plan, China commits to \u201ccomprehensively address\u201d the impact of A.I. on employment.<\/p>\n I spoke to Kyle Chan at the Brookings Institution, who studies China\u2019s A.I. policy. He told me that China wants A.I. to augment humans \u2014 that is, make them more productive across old and new industries \u2014 not replace them. And in the process of transitioning to this A.I. economy, it says, it wants to cushion the impact to avoid social fallout.<\/p>\n My colleague Catie Edmondson recently wrote<\/a> about what this looks like. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is promising \u201ctargeted employment support for key industries.\u201d One member of the National People\u2019s Congress is calling for an<\/a> \u201cA.I.-unemployment insurance program\u201d as a safety net for displaced workers. Party officials have pushed for vocational training to help workers adapt to an A.I.-centric job market.<\/p>\n Chinese scholars have even been developing a field they call A.I. Marxism \u2014 trying to apply a Marxist lens to questions like \u201cWho or what creates value after the A.I. revolution?\u201d (The machine? The human who invented it? The human who operates it?)<\/p>\n Perhaps most strikingly, the government is leaning heavily on companies to avoid layoffs. And those who don\u2019t fall in line might find themselves in court.<\/p>\n There have already been several high-profile rulings siding with workers who were dismissed. In April, a court ruled that a tech company had illegally laid off a worker after replacing him with A.I. software. The ruling delivered an implicit warning to other employers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe development of artificial intelligence technology should be applied to liberating labor, promoting employment and improving people\u2019s livelihood,\u201d the Hangzhou Intermediate People\u2019s Court wrote. \u201cLabor law allows employers to undertake technological changes and upgrade their operations, but it should also take into account the protection of workers\u2019 legitimate rights and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Just how that will work in practice, and how far the government is actually prepared to go with companies that don\u2019t comply, remains to be seen. But what these rulings underscore is how much China is thinking about the problem.<\/p>\n Two different A.I. visions<\/p>\n The U.S. is letting tech companies take the lead on A.I., and Silicon Valley is focused primarily on one thing: achieving superintelligent machines capable of displacing humans. It\u2019s an approach the Trump administration seems to be broadly on board with, or at least isn\u2019t willing to stop.<\/p>\n China\u2019s approach is different. China is imagining what it wants its economy and society to look like and how A.I. can help achieve that, Chan, the Brookings expert, says. It wants a self-reliant economy, and so it\u2019s embedding A.I. in every industry \u2014 from flashy new businesses like robotics to uncool old industries like steel or cement \u2014 to turbocharge productivity so it can never be strategically vulnerable again.<\/p>\n It also wants stability and so, even as it does so, it\u2019s thinking about how to keep humans employed.<\/p>\n China\u2019s vision for A.I. is state-driven, aimed at achieving government goals. America\u2019s is company-led \u2014 companies like OpenAI are pursuing superintelligence because it fits with their own interests, not because of a broader U.S. strategy, for now.<\/p>\n The lesson from China isn\u2019t that countries should follow its specific approach to A.I. and jobs, Chan says \u2014 Chinese-style control over the tech industry isn\u2019t feasible in most Western countries, for example. But China shows that policymakers have agency over this technology. They can influence its direction, rather than just letting the (A.I.) chips fall where they may.<\/p>\n Human choices still matter. That\u2019s one reason we\u2019re already seeing two very different visions for the future of A.I., playing out in real time.<\/p>\n OTHER NEWS<\/p>\n WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING<\/p>\n TOP OF THE WORLD<\/p>\n The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was about a study that involved tickling baby apes<\/a>.<\/p>\n WORLD CUP<\/p>\n France defeated Sweden<\/a>, 3-0. The French striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 scored twice, taking his World Cup knockout-stage tally to 10, the most in the competition\u2019s history. He is also now one goal shy of Lionel Messi\u2019s record 19 World Cup goals. In a chaotic tournament, France looks unstoppable<\/a>, our football writer says.<\/p>\n Workplace discrimination against pregnant women and young mothers is so common in Japan that it has its own word: matahara, or \u201cmaternity harassment.\u201d A national debate about the issue has been reignited after Shoko Kawata of Yawata became the first mayor in the country\u2019s history to plan on taking maternity leave. Some men are furious.<\/p>\n MORNING READ<\/p>\n Bending Spoons, an Italian firm that has amassed a stable of aging internet companies, is going public this week at a potential value of $19 billion. Its strategy of buying old names like AOL, Evernote and Vimeo stands out in an industry obsessed with the new.<\/p>\n The Bending Spoons playbook is often to cut staff, raise prices and send in its army of young engineers to improve the products and kick-start growth. The approach has angered some of the companies\u2019 employees and customers. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n A zombie pilgrimage to Pennsylvania<\/p>\n Each year, fans of the movie \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d flock to the mall in Monroeville, Pa., that George A. Romero filled with zombies during filming in the late 1970s for a weekend of panel discussions and autograph sessions. This year\u2019s gathering had an elegiac feel: Walmart has bought the building and plans to demolish it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to fathom, because it\u2019s so iconic to so many people,\u201d one attendee said in disbelief. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n