China's biggest weakness on AI

OXFORD — In late April, a Chinese court ruled that an AI firm could not legally dismiss an employee simply because his role had been automated. Shortly thereafter, Chinese regulators reportedly suspended new autonomous-vehicle licenses nationwide in response to a mass robotaxi failure in Wuhan, a city where cab drivers had long petitioned authorities to slow the technology’s rollout. And all the while, Chinese state media has been criticizing companies for contemplating artificial intelligence (AI)-driven layoffs, arguing that they have a duty to protect their employees. Together, these episodes suggest that China is beginning to pump the brakes on its own AI rollout. But why would a state with such coercive capacity and a strong desire to dominate the technological frontier choose restraint? After all, China seemed to have a structural advantage in the AI race. An authoritarian state can be a deployment machine, overriding worker resistance, suppressing protests, and keeping the gears turning, whereas liberal democracies are deliberation machines that must account for elections,