r/antiai • u/Fabulous-Put8401 • May 01 '26
AI News đď¸ China making it illegal to fire employees for AI cost cuts.
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u/ilikefriedpotatoes00 May 01 '26
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May 01 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/MightyMorph May 01 '26
Its just logical. A working population leads to manufacturing and growth. Replace works with robots and AI, you dont have people with money. Eventually the system collapses.
Difference between China and the West. China thinks about 100 years in the future for every decision. West thinks about the next fiscal quarter.
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u/BillyBobJangles May 01 '26
And the current admin doesnt even think in quarters, it's all '2 weeks' now.
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u/SecuritySea2276 May 01 '26
They're even going to land and stay on the moon in a couple of decades, bruh
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u/bworneed May 01 '26
They're not going to stay (manned) Robotics colony will start with Chang'e 8, but Long March 10 2030 is only a flag planting mission, with Long March 9 planned for long term stay at 2033, but cmiiw... Long March 9 mission is still paperwave, and the 2033 deadline is not concrete
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u/Taldarim_Highlord May 02 '26
2033 is not a couple of decades. That's just a decade ahead. Maybe he posits them staying there in 2060 or something.
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u/bworneed May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
thats true, but my problem and skepticism on CMSA post 2030 is that the manned Lanyue on Long March 10 is the main thing they planned for. Because after that, CMSA's long-term sustainability relies heavily on the Long March 9 thats supposed to follow it up, yet it has been redesigned over and over again before landing on the current iteration of following the Starship design and approaching it as wait and see.
Also the shift to rapid iteration as seen with Long March 12a and Zhuque rocket (commercial) means that we are not guaranteed the almost perfect record of the previous missions going forward.
This makes me worry as I personally cant see how the Starship HLS plan could work as outlined in the Artemis missions nor the reasoning why CASC and CMSA decided to follow Starship's design.
This is all to mean that if not in the 2030s at least im not sure we'll be going into a space age without some miracle breakthrough. Im very excited for Chang'e 8 and LM-10 but after that im very worried. I'd be happier if CASC try and tests new approach so we dont have to put all our hopes on one very risky plan.
Hopefully someone more educated can correct me here
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u/CureLegend May 22 '26
land on the moon before 2030, per the CNSA (china space agency) and as directed by the Party
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u/Sheerluck42 May 01 '26
Or you nationalize the corporations working with AI and give the proceeds back to the people as some form of UBl. But China can't nationalize Apple or Samsung so it's a better system for now to just not allow AI to replace workers.
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u/dawne_breaker May 02 '26
The forever game. When the west has laid off everyone to appease the shareholder and China has the only working, wealthy population⌠yea, guessing who has economic upper hand.
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u/OPL32 May 01 '26
Any one can think and plan into the future, it doesn't guarantee a good outcome. I'm thinking the single child policy and the huge gender imbalance that caused over a 40 year period.
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u/MightyMorph May 01 '26
true but usually fiscal quarter plannings dont ever result in better outcome for the people.
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u/DeadSmellingFlower May 02 '26
The only penalty for having more than one kid was a fine that was no more than the hospital bills we pay in the USA to have a child. About 7k, I paid that for the first kid, at least in China you got that one free.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer May 01 '26
Despite their many faults the CCP actually seems interested in having a country in 100 years.
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u/Nippolopolus May 02 '26
Thumbnail is complete bullshit and once again nobody reads the article. Classic reddit.
"A court in eastern China's Hangzhou city, an AI hub, has ruled in favor of a senior tech worker whose company replaced him with artificial intelligence (AI).
The decision is being hailed by legal scholars as a reassuring signal for labor rights protection at a time when the central Chinese leadership is pushing for industries to widely adopt AI technology."
Literally reading the first two sentences of the article and you seen china has not made AI illegal, central China is for AI replacement in industries. What happened would be the same as if a single court in San Diego ruled that the worker can't be replaced. It has little to no implications for the rest of the country.
90% of the people here are Idiots or bots. I hate Ai too but for fucks sake do the absolute bare minimum before commenting
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u/Healthy_Light_8074 May 03 '26
thanks <3 you got me to actually go read the article
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u/Nippolopolus May 03 '26
Glad I could help. I wish more people would do that with every sensationalist headline they see.
like 90% of the articles on here have misleading or overblown headlines
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u/macbowes May 01 '26
The decision is being hailed by legal scholars as a reassuring signal for labor rights protection at a time when the central Chinese leadership is pushing for industries to widely adopt AI technology.
Did you even read the article?
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u/dumnezero May 01 '26
To be clear, this was a judge. I'm not sure how independent the legal branch is in China tho.
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u/bworneed May 01 '26
the judicial system in China is under the leadership of the CPC, Courts and judges are ultimately accountable to the Party and are expected to align with its policies. Also CPC's claim to governance and their legitimacy rest only in their ability to keep China stable. CPC is genuinely in a precarious situation if the people became anti government thats why they have to compromise on some things even if they want to push their agenda. This case seems like a small cost.
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u/dumnezero May 01 '26
I see. Well, this will be clear in time. When corporations can't fire people easily, they just stop hiring for a long time.
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u/bworneed May 01 '26
yeah, honestly im worried about the inherent advantage this gives new companies. New companies are incentivized by this to just not hire or hire less in the first place now that the big boys have wage baggage to deal with.
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u/Difficult-Square-689 May 01 '26
The meme is also wrong. They basically ruled the company would have to uphold early termination clauses when replacing contracted workers with AI
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u/Effective_Tailor_679 May 01 '26
Great, now the US is going to be like "well we can't be like the communists, so we will replace all humans with AI to cut costs"
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u/yogrlw May 01 '26
Thats the MAGA thing to do!
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u/Notty_PriNcE May 01 '26
MAGA till destruction.
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u/SecuritySea2276 May 01 '26
honestly, not even most american right-wingers fw MAGA anymore, mostly due to its stance on Israel
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u/Plenty_Actuator_7872 May 02 '26
Theyâd still vote for republicans up down the ballot anyway, and then blame the democrats for everything
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u/GeraldGensalkes May 01 '26
Article: a single court ruled in favor of a single employee that the nature of their termination was unlawful.
Karma farmer: CHINA HAS BANNED ANY USE OF AI TO REPLACE HUMAN LABOR
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u/samosamancer May 01 '26
Seriously. China had a hand in getting this yearâs RightsCon (Access Nowâs annual conference on rights x international tech) canceled, because they pressured host country Zambia to make the conference exclude participants from Taiwan. We should never put all our eggs in one basket.
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u/CheeseBear9000 May 02 '26
Typical Reddit China glazing
Even though gay people are thrown in concentration camps in China btw
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u/NatureKas May 02 '26
There needs to be a misinformation/disinformation rule here as I have seen this happen way too often with news articles shared here.
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u/Empty-Blacksmith-592 May 02 '26
Recently in Shenzhen are popping up so many shops with no people at all. You need to be served either by AI or buy a robot + AI.
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u/serpentine19 May 02 '26
Sure, its sensationalist, but there is truth in it. The fact the courts ruled in this way shows there are laws that prevent it, maybe not specifically against AI but this passage is pretty good workforce protection.
The termination grounds cited by the company did not fall under negative circumstances such as business downsizing or operational difficulties, nor did they meet the legal condition that made it 'impossible to continue the employment contract
Compared to Americas workforce laws, this is outstanding. It's just it doesn't take much to be better than a country that allows people to be terminated from their job for any reason at all. Especially now as companies are trying to pump their stock pretending they are making productivity increases via AI.
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u/Extension-Two-2807 May 02 '26
AI does not scare me one bit. The people who believe ANYTHING IMMEDIATELY ON REDDIT is the real sign of the apocalypse..
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u/Moral-Relativity May 02 '26
To be fair the article also cites an earlier arbitration ruling on a similar case. However often the effect of particular rulings are narrower than pplâs interpretation.
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u/OkHighlight814 May 01 '26
What a timeline. China being the voice of reason while the West destroys itself.Â
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u/MrDanMaster May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Normal and expected if you have an objective view of history instead of Western brainrot propaganda
Edit: not that history is governed by reason but I never implied that any hemisphere or global power would appear reasonable forever
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u/internetcasuaIty May 01 '26
real objective view is knowing both the eastern and western worlds have periods of reasonability and irrationality and expecting any region to be exclusively good is the result of that placeâs brainrot propaganda
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u/sabbytabby1312 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Truth nvke Like honestly people simp way too much for either country
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u/OkTangerine4098 May 01 '26
Now that's a brainrot comment.
Are we forgetting that China is running concentration camps for Uyghurs?
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u/Kwaakku May 01 '26
Spotted the campist.Â
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u/Level-Insect-2654 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Someone in this thread below tried to justify China's "state capitalism", and indirectly their authoritarianism:
"the purpose of Chinaâs âstate capitalismâ is only to remain competitive with western nationâs development until our capacity to infinite growth runs out. It would be at that point that the necessity of capitalism [in] China would cease, and since the communist party would still have the power of the market, the full shift to socialism would begin."
Presumably the benevolent CCP will voluntarily give up power at that point as well!
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u/Sharp-Low-8578 May 02 '26
Just wanna note as somebody who studied policy and learned Mandarin to read original and translated documents that the goal is not the absolution of the party but a diversification of function and expansion of the party in tiers. A successful post capitalist state in their terms is not one without a market (capitalism is a specific ideology on how to work markets) nor a lack of organizational need. This critique does not make much more sense than saying a less authoritarian US would have no states; itâs a means of organizing with varied potentials, not a specific modality with fundamental leanings.
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u/BreakingStar_Games May 02 '26
Gonna stage Xi taking over the entire party, purging politicians and the whole social credit score as brainrot propaganda?
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u/forestalelven May 01 '26
The West or USA? Because as an European I think we are doing well in terms of workers' rights.
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u/Empty-Blacksmith-592 May 02 '26
This is propaganda. Everytime I go to China I see new shops without people replaced by AI and robots!
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u/face_mcshooty2 May 01 '26
Companies: Ok
Fires employees on bullshit reasoning
Companies: Damn, that sucks that we had to fire that guy. All good tho, we have AI.
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u/pingveno May 01 '26
Exactly what I was thinking. Like, are workers actually going to have solid recourse for that? And will it be applied evenly and fairly, or will there be favoritism based on an in with the CPC? They're not exactly known for great rule of law.
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u/Chemical_Second_6663 May 02 '26
the article literally talks about a court case where the judges sided with the worker on a case where he was fired because he was being replaced with AI
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u/BuildingInevitable85 May 01 '26
Maybe that will fly in some other country
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u/way2lazy2care May 01 '26
You think that wouldn't fly in China? As long as they're good with the party, the companies can do pretty much whatever they want.
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u/VillageLess4163 May 01 '26
lol, ok buddy. Iâm sure all laws work perfectly as intended over there.
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u/MushmallowSprinklees May 01 '26
Um that's not what the article says at all. Only mentions two cases being won in court against ai replacing workers.
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u/funeralbot May 01 '26
And soon the people will be posting videos of robots taking their jobs.
China lies through their teeth, killing their own people when they protest.
Also, they're the number 1 producer of AI robots. So them saying they will not use it seems odd.
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u/poppin-n-sailin May 01 '26
As opposed to the righteous and excellent law abiding country you hail from?Â
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u/Aternal May 01 '26
Nobody's comparing China to any other country.
They're comparing this propaganda piece to the fact that China is full of dark factories and uses Muslim slave labor. It stands on its own.
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u/Rocky_Bukkake May 02 '26
always the first line of defense - the instant âno uâ with nothing substantial to say
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u/Alucitary May 01 '26
They will absolutely use it at some point, creating some sort of fund to prevent civil unrest from mass unemployment is just a natural first step that every sane country should take beforehand.
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u/Johkungo-0 May 01 '26
Knowing China Iâm actually surprised theyâd be against cutting corners and costs I mean look at their construction. people call it tofu construction for a reason so this is actually a surprising W for China
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u/CompetitiveSport1 May 01 '26
They're not. A dude was let go without compensation, which the court said was wrongful. They didn't say that it's illegal to replace workers with AI. Just that if you do that, you still have to follow the laws around closing job positionsÂ
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u/Fantastic_Jury5977 May 01 '26
For being radical communists, they sure do seem to have the best interest of workers in mind... If this is actually true.
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u/Caesar_Gaming May 01 '26
Thatâs because dengism isnât communism. Itâs hardly socialism even.
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u/RonnocKcaj May 01 '26
yeah the only times communism ever came close to actually happening in countries (ie, congo) the US destroys it. the fact that people truly believe that the perversion of Lenins dream, the Soviet Union, was "communist" is frankly appealing
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u/SecuritySea2276 May 01 '26
this. Deng Xiaoping is the actual ć°¸čżćť´çĽ of China, imo
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u/JQuilty May 01 '26
How? 996 is the norm there. They viciously oppress independent labor, any unions must be run by CCP stooges. They have billionaires and a stock market. People work for wages.
American capitalists being piss faced drunk on AI stupidity isn't a reason to praise Chinese capitalists for just getting soaked.
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u/Bl00dyH3ll May 01 '26
That's because you fell for the propaganda. You think China can becomes the #1 infrastructure developer (by a large margin) in the world with "tofu drug construction"?
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u/Professional-Post499 May 01 '26
Meanwhile in Canada: Mark Carney pledges to incorporate genAI into as much of the government as possible and is laying off thousands of workers from the civil sector. F conservative Mark Carney.
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u/Alucitary May 01 '26
They just announced a sovereign wealth fund. Ideally I'd hope that they would delay AI integration until it was 100% funded, but still better than most.
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u/Professional-Post499 May 01 '26
They just announced a sovereign wealth fund. Ideally I'd hope that they would delay AI integration until it was 100% funded, but still better than most.
I don't trust a goddamn thing that Mark Carney does unless it's vetted by journalists I trust. Supposedly Carney Liberals are going to propose privatizing airports in Canada?
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 May 01 '26
RIIIIGHT, in China where the courts have "baby teeth"...
These are the same employers where employees' ID cards are withheld by employers, and the only way out is suicide, jumping off factory roofs.
Multiple Suicide Attempts Reported at Chinese Factory in the Same Week - Newsweek
The same factories where people Home From Work, rather than Work From Home....
Tesla Shanghai factory workers living on-site and working 12-hour shifts six days a week | Fortune
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u/MushmallowSprinklees May 01 '26
Independent journalism does not have the resources to create a mass propaganda like China claims it does. That is something only a totalitarian government can foster and create.
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u/SecuritySea2276 May 01 '26
Tesla is Elon Musk's. That should say enough
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 May 01 '26
You talk like Elon Musk runs China.. LOL
If that was the case, why can't he make his California workers "Home From Work" ??
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u/Rocky_Bukkake May 02 '26
delusion. china is notoriously strict on business practices in their borders; itâs their way or the highway.
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u/Longjumping_Area_944 May 01 '26
Fake News.
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u/MushmallowSprinklees May 01 '26
Yeah this post is, the article doesn't state anything about China outlawing ai replacing workers.
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u/Skim_Bibble May 01 '26
When china has a better morality on a subject than America then I know things are fucked. God I hope the CIA doesnât interrogate me for being a Commie.
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u/SwordfishOwn3671 May 01 '26
Can I move to China? The West is on a suicide mission in service of the rich and it's fucking gross.
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u/iwearahoodie May 05 '26
Wow a thing thatâs not even happening is now illegal! Thanks China
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u/Imthewienerdog May 01 '26
They are not making it illegal? They just need to pay a tax which goes towards the people being replaced... Before you celebrate you might want to actually look past the headline.
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u/M-FutureLord May 01 '26
By saying "goes towards the people being replaced", do you mean it is going to their income?
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u/Imthewienerdog May 01 '26
No it's just a ubi in which the company pays a portion of it through taxes. So yes towards thier income like people on food stamps.
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u/Medium_Wind_553 May 01 '26
Fun fact: China is an authoritarian country whose citizens have almost no freedoms, tons of websites, apps, media, and reputable sources are banned and the ones that are allowed are heavily controlled by the CCP, they have no free elections, and they are responsible for 1/3 of the worldâs carbon emissions
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u/freedomonke May 01 '26
This is a smart move because no one's job is actually getting replaced by "ai"
This encourages businesses to be honest about job cuts to investors.
If "ai" could actually replace the workforce, I doubt a country that tolerates people living in factories and working 12 to 16 hour shifts, or that executes over a thousand people a year, largely for non violent crimes, according to Amnesty International, would care.
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u/_Miniskirtlover_ May 01 '26
big if true.
i never expected something like that from china. huge step for humanity
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u/OnCallPartisan May 01 '26
Iâm guessing itâs due to not wanting to collapse their economy so they can easily slide into a position of power when the tech fascists inevitably collapses our economy.
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u/SwedishFindecanor May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
How about firing human workers to fund the purchase of AI hardware?
That is what Meta is saying that they are doing, even.
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u/RonnocKcaj May 01 '26
the Chinese century is upon us. I gotta start learning mandarin lmfao
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u/throwaway_pls123123 May 01 '26
All while still putting out a shit ton of research towards AI and providing the most open-source AI models, it seems like a country can both work on AI and still not destroy the people living in the country while doing it.
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u/tiffanyisonreddit May 01 '26
So, I do think this would be an excellent policy, but there is absolutely no way that this is true for China. If it is, itâs only because the people theyâre replacing with AI werenât paid employees, they were indentured servants.
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u/legit-posts_1 May 01 '26
Good for them I guess. Although I have to wonder: will this ever be enforced?
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u/mr207 May 01 '26
Meanwhile Trump will pass a tax cut to corporations that cut 35% of their workforce this year in favor of AI.
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u/MrRemoto May 01 '26
A few years ago, honey bees in China were decimated by colony collapse disorder, an illness where bees just wander away from their hive to die. The Chinese government brought in humans to hand pollinate the plants that the bees used to pollinate. They gave the bees' jobs to humans.
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u/Elite_Asriel May 01 '26
What kind of world are we living in.
For China of all places to make better decisions than USA
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u/bunniguy42 May 01 '26
Technically, this was a higher court upholding a lower court decision.
The guy in question (in article) was making 45k and would have taken a 40% pay cut





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u/SecuritySea2276 May 01 '26
I thought they were gonna do the opposite. What a unexpected W, China. I did well in learning Mandarin, after all