Boarding China’s Last Bus—Asterisk

asteriskmag.com · 4,575 words · saved by 3 readers

China’s AI enthusiasm seems real. But for a population that lived through the mass layoffs of the 1990s, optimism and fear can look identical from the outside.

Zilan Qian China’s AI enthusiasm seems real. But for a population that lived through the mass layoffs of the 1990s, optimism and fear can look identical from the outside. Americans — left, right, and everywhere in between — seem to be afraid of AI. They fear data centers speeding up climate change, disinformation and deepfakes, AI companionship, and, above all, job loss from automation. Meanwhile, the Chinese public seems to be perfectly fine with the technology, or even “optimistic” about it. The polling data is striking: Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index Report shows that more than…

Boarding China’s Last Bus—Asterisk

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