ChinAI #316: Around the Horn (20th episode)

Greetings from a world where…

My book Technology and the Rise of Great Powers is now available in traditional Chinese! Much thanks to Taiwanese publisher Acropolis [衛城出版] and translator Ruisong Xu [許瑞宋] for diffusing these ideas.

…As always, the searchable archive of all past issues is here. Please please subscribe here to support ChinAI under a Guardian/Wikipedia-style tipping model (everyone gets the same content but those who can pay support access for all AND compensation for awesome ChinAI contributors).

Around the Horn (20th episode)

This issue’s inspiration — the ESPN show Around the Horn — has aired its last episode. The point-scoring format drew me in as a kid, and I watched it voraciously after school. When I read this wonderful longform ode to the show, one feature of the show stood out to adult me:

The simple though hardly groundbreaking answer might be: journalistic perspective. Even as it shifted away from highlighting specific regional perspectives, the show’s basic conceit—that experienced beat writers who’d spent the previous night at a game, in a clubhouse, talking to league officials, would debate from all across the country with various points of view—remained, a feature that now seems downright old school. “You’re reminded that there are people who have to show up at practice every day, travel with the team, get the quotes, have the relationships, earn the trust,” Spain says. “I just think it matters when someone that actually works with the team says something about them. It really feels meaningful, compared to just another person on the internet that has never met any of the people they’re talking about.”

The show ran for 4,953 episodes. We’re at episode 20. Here’s how it works (see ChinAI #307 for most recent edition):

• I give short previews of ten articles that caught my interest as I was scanning through sources (all published within the past week or so). The title for each preview links to the original article in Chinese.

• Readers vote on next week’s feature translation by replying to the email and/or commenting on the post with the number of your preferred article. *Votes from readers who are paid subscribers to ChinAI count a little more.

• The main idea is that any of these 10 links would have made for a great feature translation this week — like TV shows that started airing in 2002, there are no skips!

1) Between the U.S. and China, it is not about “who defeats whom”

Summary: An influential Chinese political scientist argues that, based on a historical pattern, great powers fall due to their own mistakes. Zheng Yongnian urges China to invest more in a stable global economy.

Source: 大湾区评论 — this public account compiled this text from a speech from Professor Zheng at a lecture held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

2) People who work for AI, lost in data labeling

Summary: In 2020, China’s national occupational classification catalog listed AI trainers for the first time. How has their work changed over time? Dingjiaoone’s investigation includes interviews, analysis of industry reports, and firsthand experience with a data labeling project for vending machines.

Source: 定焦One (dingjiaoone) — innovation-focused portal based in Beijing (article re-posted and recommended by Huxiu)

3) AI large models can’t solve gaokao questions, nor do they dare to solve them

Summary: China’s gaokao, its national college entrance exam, began on June 7. This article gets into the weeds of a big storyline: during this year’s exam period, Chinese large model providers have “actively or passively taken restrictive measures” regarding prompts related to gaokao questions.

Source: 钛媒体 (TMTPost) — influential digital media outlet focused on technology, media, and lifestyle.

4) There are really no good data center stocks to buy

Summary: This article gets at China’s computing power landscape through an interesting entry point — the stock prices of Chinese data center providers, such as GDS and 21Vianet. What are the recent trends (e.g., oversupply), and why are investors skeptical about this industry?

Source: 雷峰网 (Leiphone) — media portal that covers China’s science and tech landscape, with a focus on AI-related happenings.

5) As the popularity of large model (startups) recedes, real technology innovators begin to be “seen”

Summary: In many ways, this piece is an extension of a previous ChinAI issue (#296) titled, “DeepSeek goes left, ModelBest [面壁智能] goes right.” It goes further into the technical details about why ModelBest has been successful with developing smaller, end-side models.

Source: AI科技评论(aitechtalk) — focuses on in-depth reports on developments in the AI industry and academia.

6) How does a Chinese AI video product attract 60 million global users?

Summary: Behind the rise of PixVerse, which has ranked as high as fourth on the US App Store (free apps). How has this Chinese app differentiated itself in the competitive AI video generation track?

Source: 甲子光年 (Jazzyear) — Beijing-based think tank focused on science and tech industry; founder Yijia Zhang was a Forbes 30 under 30 Asia winner in the Media, Marketing & Advertising category.

7) When rumor spreading rides the wind of “AI”

Summary: A rigorous take on how to combat AI-enabled misinformation. One interesting statistic from Nandu Big Data Research Institute: “Among the 50 Chinese AI risk-related public opinion cases with high search popularity in 2024, more than 1/5 were connected to AI-related rumor spreading.”

Source: Tencent Research Institute — group affiliated with the Chinese tech giant.

8) China is implementing a national internet ID system. How does the national ID card protect personal information?

Summary: This article gets into the weeds of how China’s national online ID system will be implemented. One example of the level of detail: Hu Ling, Peking University law professor, emphasizes that it’s important that users who verify their identities through other means can enjoy the same services as those who use the national internet ID system.

Source: 财经E法 (Caijing ELaw) —portal focused on internet governance under the umbrella of Caijing Magazine, a respected business platform.

9) The CAC and State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued “Guidelines for Standardization of the Development and Governance of Intelligent Society.”

Summary: Thanks to ChinAI reader Miguel Rubio for drawing my attention to this set of unusual guidelines that China’s cyberspace regulator just released. It includes requirements for social experiments in artificial intelligence (not sure what that means).

Source: Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)

10) When I asked DeepSeek about good ideas to extend the weekend

Summary: Just for laughs: a Douban user asked DeepSeek how to make the most of the weekend. Its answers provoked some fun discussions in a Douban group called “The truly important issue is how to spend the weekend well.”

Source: Daily Douban (每日豆瓣) — collects viral discussions from the Chinese social media platform Douban.

Thank you for reading and engaging.

These are Jeff Ding's (sometimes) weekly translations of Chinese-language musings on AI and related topics. Jeff is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University.

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