Why China Is Baffled by America’s AI Race | Yi-Ling Liu

Silicon Valley frames AI as a race against China to reach AGI. In China, almost nobody thinks that way.

Journalist Yi-Ling Liu, author of The Wall Dancers and journalist in residence at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, joined me on Forecast 2050 to explain how China actually sees AI, the “permanent underclass” that predates automation, demographic collapse and the Chinese silver economy, and the Christian origins of the transhumanist movement.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/why-is-silicon-valley-obsessed-with

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

02:58 Superintelligence Is Not China’s Goal

08:06 The Pre-AI Permanent Underclass

11:00 The Tech-Government Revolving Door

17:05 Lying Flat

19:57 Christian Singularity vs. Daoist AI

26:06 Overcoming Censorship

32:10 The TikTok Ban

36:58 Chinese Perceptions of the West

46:16 The Silver Economy

Yi-Ling Liu is a journalist in residence at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, former China editor at Rest of World, and author of The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet.

Yi-Ling on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yi-ling-l-89799783/

Yi-Ling on X: https://x.com/yilingliu95

Website: https://www.yi-lingliu.com/

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

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