Definitely think - among the many perceptive dimensions of this piece - the AI-anxiety-as-proxy-for-crisis-of-meaning holds essential similarity to the forward texture of the debate here in the States as well.
Excellent piece, and the fiscal constraint argument is particularly well made.
One framing I think is missing, though: the demographic crisis. The article treats AI-driven job displacement primarily as a social stability and fiscal management problem, but China's shrinking working-age population cuts against that framing in an important way. If the workforce is structurally contracting over the next 15-20 years, automation isn't eating from a fixed pool of jobs, it's substituting for labour that won't exist in sufficient quantity. In that light, the arbitration rulings and proposed protections, however politically necessary now, could harden into constraints that impede exactly the automation China needs to sustain productivity as its dependency ratio worsens.
the 72% embodied workforce number reframes the whole displacement conversation. 503 humanoid and embodied-AI funding rounds in the last year, averaging more than one a day. the capital is explicitly chasing the part of the labor market where software-only AI doesn't reach. that's a different anxiety problem.
Definitely think - among the many perceptive dimensions of this piece - the AI-anxiety-as-proxy-for-crisis-of-meaning holds essential similarity to the forward texture of the debate here in the States as well.
Excellent piece, and the fiscal constraint argument is particularly well made.
One framing I think is missing, though: the demographic crisis. The article treats AI-driven job displacement primarily as a social stability and fiscal management problem, but China's shrinking working-age population cuts against that framing in an important way. If the workforce is structurally contracting over the next 15-20 years, automation isn't eating from a fixed pool of jobs, it's substituting for labour that won't exist in sufficient quantity. In that light, the arbitration rulings and proposed protections, however politically necessary now, could harden into constraints that impede exactly the automation China needs to sustain productivity as its dependency ratio worsens.
https://pavellong.substack.com/p/the-robot-divide-why-chinas-automation?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8g2wxr
the 72% embodied workforce number reframes the whole displacement conversation. 503 humanoid and embodied-AI funding rounds in the last year, averaging more than one a day. the capital is explicitly chasing the part of the labor market where software-only AI doesn't reach. that's a different anxiety problem.
Great research. Thanks a lot.
Factories automate.
Companies automate.
But governments don’t.
How will this pan out?
And will China find a better or worse solution how to balance AI and society?
They must manage the young population future to avoid mass emigration at some point?