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yogthosyesterday at 11:58 PM2 repliesview on HN

What I find interesting is the contrast between the West and China here. Most people in the West expect that AI will make their lives worse in some way. Meanwhile, 84% of Chinese are excited about this tech, and expect that it will be used to make their lives better. it's a really vivid contrast between the way new technology becomes integrated into each type of society.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-14/why-ai-op...


Replies

jltsirentoday at 2:10 AM

The same probably holds without AI. China is still in the stage of development, where people reasonably expect that the future will be better. The West has not really been optimistic about the future since the 90s. There is always something around the corner threatening to make the future worse. Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's climate change, maybe immigration, or terrorism, or war, or whatever.

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nylonstrungtoday at 11:05 AM

I think a lot of what's underlying this is just a big difference in general societal optimism/pessimism

In polls 80-90% of Chinese say their country/govt is headed in a positive direction vs <30% in US