[dennysora]

I’ve heard that, at companies developing AI right now, the core R&D staff are mostly ethnic Chinese. I’m not sure whether that’s accurate.

I’ve also heard that meetings are conducted in English, but that all private discussions happen in Chinese, so managers have no idea what they’re talking about.

That said, Chinese really is hard… In contrast, English is simple enough, so it’s more efficient to learn, and it’s easier to attract talent.

As for whether this “stifles” anything, I think China mainly relies on its own people. Most of the talent who go to China still speak English anyway.

On top of that, China’s speech control is genuinely annoying. Though I also find it annoying that Threads arbitrarily suppresses speech, too.

In areas like energy, semiconductors (Taiwan—although some production/deployment is currently in China, but it’s hard to say what might happen and when), and AI, China does feel unsettlingly powerful right now.

In democratic countries, just getting approval for a new energy facility can turn into years of arguing; in China, they can build several in the same time.

By the way, I’m Taiwanese.