Alice Han

Yeah, they're these toys that are being sold that can speak directly to children and teach them and interact with them.

I don't know if you've ever read Neil Stevenson's Diamond Age, but it's this kind of AI primer that is part of the story.

We're already living in that Diamond Age, so to speak, in the sci-fi realm.

That is one area.

And then another area in which the, I would say, OpenAI and Anthropic have not been as competitive is in multi-language.

If you look at the models coming out of China, it makes sense because they've been trained a lot on multi-language English, Chinese, and other language datasets.

They tend to be better at other languages.

And so if you're a global company where you care about a Chinese-Asian speaking market, that could also be quite an important distinction.

Well, I think DeepSeek is still a leader.

They still have a lot of the high-level AI talent, and that counts a lot when you think about the AI competition domestically and globally.

I do know for a fact, although I'm not sure if I should say this, that DeepSeek is working a lot with local governments, with government bodies in China to integrate AI into local public governance.

And I think this is coming at a time where, you know, Ed will be watching with bated breath in the next two weeks or so, because the 15th five-year plan is going to come out.

And it's very, very clear now that AI plus is going to be a huge cornerstone of the policy for the next five years.

So AI in every realm, including in public governance and public service and utilities.

So DeepSeek is still a player, but I think the latest models coming out of Alibaba, even Kimmy, show us that in China, at least, the AI race is hyper-competitive.

It's not just a duopoly, or even centered around three players, which is increasingly what's happening, it seems, in the U.S.

There's many different players, and I think they can capture different parts of the market.

I believe China may be more meritocratic today than America is.

Given this system, given the way in which education and scholastic intelligence are lionized, I would say that China today is probably more meritocratic than the U.S.

Welcome to China Decode, I'm Alice Han.