U.S. media: When China's AI lab Z.ai launched its latest model, GLM-5.2—whose performance rivals Anthropic’s top-tier product but costs less than one-tenth as much—the U.S.-China AI race has once again drawn widespread attention. Yet beyond technological competition, China is exploring a rarely discussed path: proactively managing AI’s impact on employment.
China currently operates over 2 million industrial robots in factories, while autonomous taxis and delivery vehicles are now ubiquitous across major cities. The threat posed by the AI wave to white-collar workers has particularly concerned authorities.
To address this, China’s current five-year plan explicitly commits on page 72 to “comprehensive response” to AI’s impact on employment. Specific measures include: the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launching targeted employment support for key industries; national people’s congress representatives calling for establishing an “AI unemployment insurance”; courts issuing rulings supporting workers replaced by AI. In April this year, Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court ruled that a tech company’s use of AI to replace employees constituted illegal dismissal, clearly stating that “AI technology should be used to liberate labor and promote employment.” Academia has even seen the emergence of a new intellectual current known as “AI Marxism,” exploring questions about where value creation resides in the age of AI.
Chan, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, pointed out that the U.S. and China represent two starkly different visions for AI: the U.S., driven by corporations pursuing superintelligence; China, centrally planned by the state, aiming to empower every industry through AI while ensuring continuous human employment.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1869481228944460/
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