How China Caught U.S. AI — With Grace Shao
Grace Shao is the author of AI Proem. Shao joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how Chinese AI labs have caught their American rivals despite operating with less advanced computing infrastructure. Tune in to hear how talent, specialization, open-source collaboration, and fierce competition helped models like Kimi K3 approach the U.S. frontier, and what that means for OpenAI, Anthropic, and the business of selling intelligence. We also cover model distillation, China’s compute constraints, the growing importance of AI products, why top researchers are returning to China, and the country’s emerging robotics advantage. Hit play for a clear-eyed look at whether the United States can preserve its AI lead.
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Grace Shao on What the World Should Know About Chinese AI
China's AI industry has changed a lot since DeepSeek released its cheap frontier model last year, and briefly sent US tech stocks falling. After being locked out of the most advanced chips, Chinese companies are now allowed to buy some Nvidia H200s. In fact, many of the big Chinese tech companies — like Baidu — are making a push to become full-stack players, with their own chips, models, and cloud infrastructure. Today's guest is Grace Shao, an independent AI researcher and the author of the AI Proem Substack. She's a bit of an insider when it comes to China's AI industry, and when we were in Hong Kong we spoke with her about the latest in open-source models, the competition among Chinese frontier labs, DeepSeek's place in an increasingly crowded Chinese AI market, China's manufacturing edge, where bottlenecks exist right now (spoiler: it isn't data centers), if Chinese grandmas are actually using OpenClaw, and finally, of course, AI psychosis.
Read More:China AI Lab’s 170% Stock Surge Cements Winner-Loser Pair Trade China Plans Mechanism to Evaluate AI Impacts on Job Market
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Why China's AI Strategy Just Might Work — With Grace Shao
Grace Shao is a Hong Kong-based writer and analyst, and author of AI Proem on Substack newsletter. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss China's rise in artificial intelligence, and whether (and how) it can be a global player. Tune in to hear how China's AI startups are rapidly productizing cutting-edge tech, why it keeps developing open-source models, and why it's surging in robotics. We also cover AI agents like Manus, chip shortages, and the entrepreneurial resurgence transforming Chinese tech culture. Hit play for an essential conversation on China’s AI ambitions and their global implications.
You can read more from Grace here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aiproem
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