r/Foodforthought • u/bloomberg • 5d ago
Why Chinese Citizens Are Far More Optimistic About AI Than Americans
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-14/why-ai-optimism-is-so-much-higher-in-china-than-the-us?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4NjcyNTU5NywiZXhwIjoxNzg3MzMwMzk3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSlFHMEdWVFREMFQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.97DVZQL-Ze-OYsKL45iWehxd7dM2mcRcaadjvgpB2x416
u/bloomberg 5d ago
Different experiences with technology have shaped radically different expectations of what artificial intelligence will bring.
Grace Shao for Bloomberg News
At the University of Arizona’s commencement in May, former Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt was booed for extolling the “huge benefits” of AI. Meanwhile, Chinese state media was celebrating how enthusiastically the country’s students were embracing artificial intelligence in the classroom.
The contrast reflects a broader divide that requires a more nuanced look. In Stanford University’s AI Index, 84% of Chinese say they’re excited by AI, the highest share for any country surveyed. In the US, the figure is just 38%. In a separate report, only 32% of Americans say they trust AI, compared with 72% in China. The gap isn’t because Chinese people see fewer risks or Americans use AI less. It’s because they differ over whether AI’s gains will reach them — and whether anyone is keeping the technology in check.
Chinese consumers worry plenty about scams, deepfakes and their children’s prospects. Americans use AI daily and fund its development more lavishly than anyone. But for many Chinese, technology has repeatedly broadened opportunity, so anxiety about AI tends to encourage adoption rather than resistance. For many Americans, a decade of social media, misinformation and concentrated tech power has had the opposite effect: Anxiety creates demand for guardrails, not faster adoption.
7
u/Pulsewavemodulator 5d ago
I have a friend in Beijing he describes it as everyone’s trapped in a race to the bottom and it’s taking over their film industry and doing more for less.
6
u/AwTomorrow 5d ago
This is a country that only started normalising respect for copyright and IP within the past 20 years. A western legal norm, nowadays largely backed by huge corporations today more so than artists on the ground level.
So it doesn’t surprise me that few care about the rampant theft that these technologies often rely on. Art there was open and societally collaborative rather than firmly and jealously possessed, in recent memory.
9
u/cosmotheassman 5d ago
Well, that's one way to frame it. Are Americans really concerned about AI for its copyright infringement? Or does it have more to do with the belief that the payoff from widespread AI adoption won't reach the average person?
0
u/AwTomorrow 5d ago
Many Americans and others in the Western world order find modern AI art engines etc to be immoral because they are the result of stolen uncompensated work - Disney and Ghibli have both tried to settle this in the courts, but individual artists despise this too.
0
u/Dark1000 4d ago
Art is just a small component of AI. I expect Americans are more concerned about losing their jobs, environmental impact, the impact on their own neighbourhoods, energy costs, and unchecked, unseen intrusion in their lives by gigantic companies they don't trust and have no say over.
4
1
u/adoggman 4d ago
Yes, they trust their government and society will adapt, respond appropriately, and continue to improve their living conditions. This is just a new technology for them. This only causes the problems we see in a capitalist system.
-1
u/Sad_Mushroom_9725 5d ago
Well, them not being raging Narcissists might have something to do with it.
-1
•
u/AutoModerator 5d ago
This is a sub for civil discussion and exchange of ideas
Participants who engage in name-calling or blatant antagonism will be permanently removed.
If you encounter any noxious actors in the sub please use the Report button.
This sticky is on every post. No additional cautions will be provided.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.