Hannah Miao

It seems that this is a topic that is increasingly sensitive for China's government.

And there appear to be growing concerns about the potential widespread impact of AI on the labor market, which could create all sorts of instability in the economy.

Right.

So we reported that last summer, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng asked the country's biggest employers, so that includes tech companies, but also banks and carmakers and other companies, about how AI could affect their workforces.

And what we learned is that he seemed really shaken by what he heard.

Some companies said...

AI could create some new jobs over the next several years, but that fully adopting AI could also wipe out 30% or more of their existing roles.

according to people familiar with the situation.

So then we learned that late last year, China's government warned employers not to cut jobs as they embrace AI.

So it seems that this is a topic that is increasingly sensitive for China's government.

And there appear to be growing concerns about the potential widespread impact of AI on the labor market, which could create all sorts of instability in the economy.

What we've seen is China released something called AI Plus.

It's their plan for AI adoption.

And that really focuses on using AI in sectors like manufacturing and logistics, things that aren't very sensitive to white-collar job displacement.

And then in terms of companies, what we've heard is that employers are being asked to explain layoffs to regulators in China before any sort of large scale layoffs.

And in some cases to prove that the cuts aren't because of AI replacing jobs.

So there seems to be additional scrutiny about workforce reductions and in particular whether AI is involved in them or not.

That's right.

One recent example was a publicized case study in Hangzhou, which is a wealthy tech hub in eastern China.

There was a man who worked as a quality control supervisor checking for errors for an AI model.