China's AI jobs threat

中国人工智能与就业

Drum Tower

2026-08-25

39 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

China is rushing ahead on AI integration. The Communist Party wants every industry to adopt the technology in the hope it will boost growth. But behind the enthusiasm, the country's leaders worry about workers being displaced by the tech they are promoting.   Guests and hosts: Sarah Wu, co-host of “Drum Tower”Jeremy Page, co-host of “Drum Tower”   Topics: Chinese AI China's economyChina's jobs market  Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • The Economist.

  • China sees dominance of AI as an almost existential necessity.

  • But while America is focused on achieving artificial general intelligence,

  • matching or surpassing human levels across all domains,

  • Chinese leaders are focused on trying to use

  • the less powerful models that they have today throughout China's economy.

  • Already, AI is changing the way the world's largest workforce

  • makes popular forms of entertainment and transports billions of packages each year.

  • And already, jobs are changing or disappearing, sometimes overnight.

  • But China's embrace of AI also comes with a unique set of challenges

  • Its social welfare net is flimsy, and youth unemployment is already high.

  • In recent years, the gig economy has taken up the slack, absorbing hundreds of millions of workers.

  • But now those jobs too are under threat from AI.

  • I'm Sarah Wu.

  • And I'm Jeremy Page.

  • And this week on Drum Tower,

  • we're looking at how China's AI drive is threatening the world's largest workforce

  • and asking if China's leaders are doing enough

  • to support the workers who are being displaced by the tech that they're promoting.

  • Hi Sarah, it's great to see you again.