A dumpling shop becomes a poster child of AI adoption in China

21 August 2026 at 08:00

If you have an AI agent, you can tell it to build a website, make a slideshow, or get you a table at a popular dumpling shop in Beijing. The...

Ban on Chinese robots leaves U.S. startups stranded

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

17 August 2026 at 05:00

The U.S. government is forcing a rapid onshoring of robotics through a sweeping ban on foreign-made robots, even before an American supply chain exists, putting at risk the very robotics...

Three Unitree G1 humanoid robots are pictured at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing.

Why Silicon Valley is divided over China’s powerful, cheap AI models

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

3 August 2026 at 05:00

The surge of powerful Chinese open-weight AI models has sparked a feud in Silicon Valley and Washington over whether they are threats to U.S. national security or essential parts of...

Anxious Chinese students are trusting AI to help pick colleges and majors

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

29 July 2026 at 05:00

After taking part in China’s grueling national college entrance exam, Guo Xinyan has three weeks to make what could be the most important decision of her life: which universities and...

Students leave the gaokao exam in Nanjing in June under a banner that reads “Win top marks.”

In China, people are renting out their faces to AI

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Viola Zhou

27 July 2026 at 05:00

The artificial intelligence boom has created a new marketplace in China where people can rent out their faces. A growing number of online platforms are paying people anywhere between $15...

Older adults know AI is slop. They just like it

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

10 July 2026 at 08:00

Young people can’t seem to stop watching AI slop videos of cats talking and fruits cheating on each other. Older people are enjoying a different kind of AI-generated content, which...

China’s web novel platforms embraced AI. Now they are fighting it

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By: Viola Zhou

6 July 2026 at 05:00

Gordon Sheng, a 32-year-old civil engineer in China, spent two decades reading web novels before using AI to write his own. He used DeepSeek to outline a dramatic divorce plot,...

When Americans choose Chinese AI

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

17 June 2026 at 05:00

Stu Clott, an operations manager and part-time developer in San Diego, used to code with Claude. But he recently found a cheaper alternative: DeepSeek. While an hourlong coding session would...

China is training a robot future — one folded shirt at a time

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

3 June 2026 at 05:00

Daniel Wang came home to his apartment in Beijing and saw a humanoid robot waiting for him. He opened the door, and the robot got to work. The robot, developed...

A robot performs house chores at the Hisense booth at the SNEIC expo center in Shanghai, China, on March 12, 2026.

What AI race? China and U.S. AI worlds are tightly connected

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

22 May 2026 at 08:00

The tech race between the U.S. and China seems to heat up daily. Headlines center on how America seeks to lead global AI with its capital and chips, while China...

What’s at stake for tech at the Trump-Xi meeting

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou and Kinling Lo

13 May 2026 at 05:00

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in Beijing this week amid the urgent geopolitical tensions surrounding the war in Iran and the status...

The Chinese whiz kids of Silicon Valley

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

11 May 2026 at 05:00

Last fall, I moved into Mark Zuckerberg’s old house. A pale blue ranch home dubbed the Facebook House, it was perched in the hills of Los Altos, an affluent enclave...

I got stood up by an AI agent, and tracked down its human owner in China

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

29 April 2026 at 05:00

I kept hearing about entrepreneurs in China running “one-person companies” with the help of artificial intelligence agents, which handle everything from coding to managing emails. How well do agents work?...

RedNote chases U.S. expansion after its “TikTok refugee” moment fades

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

14 April 2026 at 05:00

RedNote, one of China’s most popular social platforms, is trying to grow its social media and e-commerce businesses in the U.S. by hiring staff, hosting promotional events in universities, and...

Chinese entrepreneurs should go global before they go viral

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

10 April 2026 at 07:20

The $2 billion Meta deal was supposed to be a crowning moment for Chinese AI startup Manus, but it’s quickly become a sharp warning. For Chinese founders, the message is...

Free boba and “red envelopes”: China’s AI giants launch marketing blitz for Lunar New Year

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

5 February 2026 at 16:05

Chinese artificial-intelligence titans are gearing up for an intense marketing blitz in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, dishing out digital “red envelopes” filled with cash, giving away bubble...

AI agent Moltbot makes waves in China and Silicon Valley

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

30 January 2026 at 10:32

Artificial-intelligence superusers in China are rushing to test out Moltbot, the AI assistant that has gone viral in Silicon Valley, with cloud providers offering special packages to early adopters. Developed...

AI health care is taking off in China, led by Jack Ma’s Ant Group

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

30 January 2026 at 06:00

Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech affiliate and parent of China’s ubiquitous payment app Alipay, is racing to lead the country’s digital health market with a chatbot designed to be a wellness...

In Chinese data factories, workers teach humanoid robots boring tasks

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou and Kinling Lo

7 January 2026 at 06:00

Inside a brightly lit office in Shanghai, Kim’s task for the week was to pretend he was opening the door of a microwave. Wearing a virtual reality headset and exoskeletons...

Humanoid robots follow technicians to learn job skills at the data collection area of an embodied AI robot innovation center on September 14, 2025 in Shaoxing, of China.

The UAE’s AI strategy winds through Silicon Valley

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

24 November 2025 at 06:00

The United Arab Emirates aims to become a global artificial intelligence powerhouse, and its latest investment is a new research lab in Silicon Valley. The state-run Mohamed bin Zayed University...

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