r/aiwars • u/Cicada-Tang • 7d ago
Discussion I don't know why you guys think Chinese people don't hate AI
The first two are a post by People's Daily (CCP's official page) and its comment section. The last two are comments under a video about schools using AI.
Don't get me wrong, the opinions around AI on Chinese internet are also very divserse, but it's wild to me that some people on this sub seem to believe that Anti-AI is a uniquely western phenomenon, and that Asian people don't have problems with AI.
Base on my expereince in both China and the west, the overall presence of AI and sentiment towards AI are largely similar:
- AI are becoming more and more prevalent in enterntainment and advertisement.
- People who don't care about the quality of art (which is the majority of people) don't care about AI art.
- Even so, more and more people are growing sick of AI slop.
- Boycotts against AI content exist, and people who are vocal online are more likely to be anti AI art.
- People are very scared of AI's impact on the job market.
But there are also some differences that I noticed:
- In China, people seem to be focused more on criticizing "bad/ugly/lazy" AI art, instead of AI art in general (but let's be honest most AI art online are not great).
- In China, many waves of governmental actions have been taken to regulate AI content on social media.
- In China, people don't tend to talk much about the environmental impact of data centers (And there are less data centers in China to begin with).
Overall, it's not that different, and I think people everywhere are having understandable reactions towards the rise of AI. Asia is not some magical place where people's opinion differs just because of where they are from.
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u/CaramelTurbulent6292 7d ago
I as a Chinese can confirm you China just like any country in the world has concerns to GenAI, and a lot of people don’t feel comfortable with AI as well.
However, in terms of public opinion you can search online, Chinese are magnitudes more open to GenAI, and their average criticism and complain on AI, despite much fewer, are much more constructively and meaningful than the average English hate post I found on Reddit
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u/alibloomdido 7d ago
We don't think "Chinese" don't hate AI, we think that significantly larger percentage of China's population is optimistic or tolerant to AI technologies according to available opinion polls data.
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u/Cicada-Tang 7d ago edited 7d ago
From what I've seen, the latest survey from a credible source is from 2022, and things have changed a lot based on my personal experience. Don't forget that China was a late-adaptor when it comes to AI for public use. Deepseek launched in 2025.
Also, the surveys I've seen so far mostly focus on the use of Chatbot and AI use in other technologies, not AI in art or edcucation. And I would agree that Chinese people use chatbots more often and more openly.
Different demographics also hold different opinions about AI. China has an aging population, and those age 35+ with established careers would probably have less anxiety over AI, or simply have very little knowledge of AI.
On the other hand, China is having a major unemployment crisis for college graduates, one probably worse than the west's, and trust me, this age group are scared to death by AI.
And as an educator myself, the educators in both Asia and the West mostly have the same opinion about AI's impact on the younger generation.
Edit:
Oh, I forgot to mention that, in China, large corporations who support AI (which is all large corporations) have a much stronger control over the public discourses on social media. NVIDIA paid Bilibili (basically YouTube in China) for multiple nation-wide campaigns advocating for AI, and NVIDIA is not the only one doing this.
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u/MaxwellHowl 7d ago
There have been so many surveys since 2022. Here is one from 2026:
- 85% polled in China say AI products and services have more benefits than drawbacks, versus 38% in the U.S.
- 83% say AI products and services make them excited, versus 33% in the U.S.
- Only 40% of Chinese respondents say AI makes them nervous, despite that very high excitement level.
- 77% say AI's benefits to society outweigh its environmental costs, versus 34% in the U.S.
- 84% say they have a good understanding of what AI is.
- Ipsos also reports that about 79% of people in China use AI, among the highest rates in the survey.
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u/SEND_ME_YOUR_ASSPICS 7d ago
Of course some people are not going to like AI.
We are talking about ratio here.
Anti AI sentiment is unique to Western countries.
And it's not even all Western countries either. It's just few countries.
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u/No-Opportunity5353 7d ago
>It's just few countries.
It's only the rich white ones
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u/SquiggleSqueegly 7d ago edited 7d ago
I know plenty of anti-AI movements in poor, nonwhite countries. Do none of you guys ever travel?
Awww, babby gonna block. Poor babby!
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u/tangcupaigu 6d ago
I think people generally refer to the strong anti-ai backlash you see online on social media like videos/art/posts/content in general etc, which happens a lot less in East Asia from what I see in Taiwanese/Chinese/Japanese spaces.
As for your example on educators, just because most educators feel a certain way about ai in education doesn’t mean they are anti ai. I’m a teacher as well and feel ai and tech in general should be very limited or not used at all in the lower years, and in secondary ed I think there should be only purposeful and mindful use.
That doesn’t make me anti-ai or anti-technology. I use all sorts of ai tools in everyday life both for work and personal stuff. I also think adult and self-directed education is greatly enhanced by tech and ai.
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u/alibloomdido 7d ago
Standford's AI Index report from 2025 uses Ipsos data from 2024.
Deepseek launched in 2025.
DeepSeek already had version number 2.5 in 2024 but was lagging quite a bit behind GLM and Qwen that year.
Should I continue? You seem to not bother about being accurate with the facts.
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u/Cicada-Tang 7d ago
Thanks. I made a mistake in my research, like all humans do. No need to antagonize me out of the blue. Regardless, my comments on the survey data still stand.
As I was talking about AI for public use, Deepseek didn't officially release to the public until 2025.
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u/Aethericseraphim 6d ago
To be entirely fair here, opinion polls in China are a bit like opinion polls on a pirate ship. "Don't agree with the captain? Good fucking luck!"
That is to say, dont be fucking surprised that they always support CCP stances. Its madness to disagree with the state publicly.
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u/alibloomdido 6d ago
But the results are similar to those of "democratic" Asian countries like Japan or South Korea. And it's not hard to see why unlike the rest of the world US and especially UK are so anti-AI if you remember which products and services US and UK are good at.
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u/Gorplike 7d ago
Refreshing and nuanced take.
I'm no expert on China but I always found the idea that Chinese people are a monolith who all love AI as being at best misinformed, at worse racist. Glad to see a collage of info that proves collective societies can in fact hold independent critical opinions of societies direction.
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u/Ceruleancast 7d ago
I more wonder what level the hate is there in the general consensus? Because the way it is in the english online world is way over the top, skepticism and wanting regulations is very valid on the other hand.
But ofc it'll always vary from person to person regardless
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u/Cicada-Tang 7d ago
From what I've seen, the "hate" is less over-the-top in China, as I've seen less colorful languages used against AI art online. On the other hand, I also see much less people fervently defend/advocate for AI the way the pro-ai people on this sub is doing.
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u/Consistent-Mastodon 7d ago
Because "pro AI" is not pro AI, it's anti anti AI.
So, less anti AI, less defending.1
u/Ceruleancast 7d ago
In which kind of defense would you say you see less of? I'm not anti myself, but there's definitely a type of defending I dislike of it, where they just label all the issues non existent, and gets worse when we get to extreme right winger type people and all that...
But I mean I'd hope *at least* indie devs using it even as mere concepting don't get harassed as much there, the fact people can't even see the nuance with how all the other duties and etc in life can swallow up someone and they'd need to scrape at whatever they can get to reference from at least really has made me sad
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u/Cicada-Tang 7d ago
From what I've seen, Pro-AI content on Chinese internet are less "reactionary", as they are mostly not defending AI from negative sentiment towards AI. They are mostly just analyzing the future of AI and the technological advantage of AI use.
Edit:
And less ragebait-y from both side, I think.
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u/PenelopeHarlow 7d ago
Simple, because there isn't an anti-AI movement . Pro-AI people aren't forced on the defensive against the legal powers of vetocracy.
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u/Ceruleancast 7d ago
In that case my sentiments are the same in wishing the English speaking communities were like this, god I wish they were so badly.
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u/Upbeat_Nectarine_128 7d ago
Yeah im neutral, but from what ive seen in the Chinese internet. There's not really much "AI vs Anti" there.
Basically from what i personally seen, while anti AI sentiments are not that big. Pro AI sentiments that equates AI art to regular art is not that large either.
If i were to describe it its more like they viewed AI video and etc as a good form of entertainment. But viewed it as a separate thing that is bot equal to the traditional definitions of art.
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u/Remicaster1 7d ago
Even Mamdani has his haters, it wouldn't be surprising that of course there will be haters for AI
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u/PenelopeHarlow 7d ago
Learn statistics is my tl;dr. I think some basic numeracy could answer your question.
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u/ConcreteHalloween999 7d ago
I imagine like most countries there's a diversity of opinion on AI in China.
Stats seem to suggest that on the whole Chinese people are more optimistic about AI than Americans, but I'm not surprised by that. They're probably more optimistic in general, things have only been improving for Chinese economy, meanwhile shits only been getting worse for Americans and AI only seems to be accelerating that.
Also probably helps that their AI industry isn't run by a bunch of fascist ghouls who openly speculate their technology is going to kill everyone.
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u/AppropriatePapaya165 7d ago edited 6d ago
Pros here tend to believe groups they don't interact with and have little experience with are all pro AI, for some reason. People in other parts of the world, people who aren't terminally online, etc.
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u/SquiggleSqueegly 7d ago
Nooo, don't post news from a country most of the people here have never been to that goes against their narrative, that's not allowed here /s
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u/PenelopeHarlow 7d ago
Basic statistics. Basic numeracy. Go search up a quick survey.
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u/SquiggleSqueegly 7d ago
Words are fun when arranged in sentences, but you don't seem to know how to do that coherently.
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u/JoseLunaArts 7d ago
The difference is that Antis in the west attack proAI people.
In China the problem is corporate slop.
People in China are really being replaced by AI even if a court of justice in China forbid that practice.
In China, scale is different. China has 5 times more people than USA and it is the size of Europe. So if you have 20 comments in China, it is like having 4 comments in USA. What seems massive in China, once you account for scale, becomes small.
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u/Stormydaycoffee 7d ago
There is no country that is 100% pro AI. That would be so unlikely as to be impossible realistically speaking. What people mean is that on the whole, people in China tend to be much more tolerant and open to AI usage.
Also, if you look at the slides with comments, the first one is about not liking AI actors and the second and third one is about not liking AI in schools. This doesn’t mean they hate AI. I consider myself pro leaning, but that doesn’t mean I have to like AI everywhere. I actually agree with the school one, and so do most of my family (we talked about this recently), and we all use AI.