HONG KONG (AP) 鈥 On a recent weekday, around 50 people gathered outside the headquarters of a Chinese mobile internet company, waiting to get help with installing an artificial intelligence assistant.
The scene in Beijing, China's capital, was repeated for days at several events and was also seen in the southern technology hub Shenzhen in March, as engineers helped crowds trying to set up the popular AI 鈥渁gent鈥 OpenClaw on their laptops.
鈥淚鈥檓 worried about falling behind in technological developments,鈥 said Sun Lei, a 41-year-old human resources manager at the Cheetah event. She said she hoped the tool might help her source and screen resumes across various recruitment platforms.
More than a year after OpenAI's Chinese rival stunned the world with its advanced AI model, China has become a testing ground for mass use of AI tools. AI models built in the United States still dominate in raw computing firepower, but Chinese people and businesses have rapidly embraced the technology, facilitating its swift and widespread adoption in almost every possible field.
As global AI adoption and in daily lives, ordinary Chinese are using for all sorts of things, from booking and planning travel, ordering food and hailing rides. Of its 1.4 billion population, more than 600 million were using generative AI as of December, a 142% increase from a year earlier, according to a report by the government-controlled China Internet Network Information Center.
And, with the recent surge in the use of 鈥渁gentic鈥 AI like OpenClaw including for many Chinese businesses, the consumption of data by AI models has also risen. Measured in what computer scientists call tokens, or units of data such as part of a word, the weekly share used by Chinese AI models has recently surpassed U.S. models, according to OpenRouter, an AI 鈥済ateway platform鈥 that tracks data and enforces security across different AI models.
AI adoption positions China as a 鈥榳orld leader鈥
Jason Tong, a 64-year-old retiree in Shanghai who has worked as an IT engineer, has been using AI chatbots such as Doubao and Kimi for everyday queries since they were first introduced a few years ago.
He began paying closer attention to his health and in early March joined a blood glucose monitoring service run by a Shanghai-based company that uses an AI model to generate tailored health advice. He has found its personalized, rapid responses helpful.
Widespread adoption of AI applications in everyday life is inevitable, Tong believes, 鈥淛ust as carriages were eventually replaced by trains, this is bound to happen.鈥
Chinese products incorporating AI such as cars and robots are making major advancements, from humanoid robots with advanced cognitive capabilities to AI systems that drivers can use for more complicated tasks like making a restaurant reservation.
鈥淭he (AI) competition is clearly shifting from models to ecosystems,鈥 said Lizzi Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute鈥檚 Center for China Analysis focused on economics and technology. 鈥淐hinese users are basically acting as real-time testers at scale.鈥
Chinese technology companies like Tencent, and Baidu are also racing to commercialize AI. Tencent integrated OpenClaw into WeChat, China's own 鈥渟uper-app鈥 which is primarily a messaging tool but can also be used to do things like ordering food and making payments. Alibaba is embedding 鈥渁gentic鈥 AI into its workflows.
OpenClaw fuels wider use of China AI applications
OpenClaw, originally created by Austrian software developer Peter Steinberger last year, won quick and enthusiastic use thanks to its ability to use various tools to complete complicated tasks.
Zhao Yikang, a Chinese college student in Macao, uses OpenClaw in both his studies and daily life.
He was struck by how low-cost and efficient it is, using it to automatically generate promotional videos and manage social media accounts during his internship at a real estate agency in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai.
鈥淎I can understand things in a second,鈥 Zhao said. 鈥淵ou just need to act as a commander and tell it what to do.鈥
Preparing to start a photo services business after graduation, Zhao asked AI to build a company website. Within 10 minutes, it had generated a fully functional site for less than 5 yuan (70 cents).
At one point, Chinese authorities issued several warnings about potential security risks over OpenClaw AI 鈥渁gents鈥 like data leaks as installations spiked, the broad interest had not faded.
Chinese companies increasingly are setting internal targets for boosting use of AI to improve efficiency, said Janet Tang, a partner & managing director focused on technology at consultancy AlixPartners.
There are 鈥渁 lot of application scenarios,鈥 said Wang Xiaogang, co-founder of the Chinese AI software company SenseTime and chairman of ACE Robotics. 鈥淭he industry is developing very fast and the people, they are very open and they鈥檙e eager to try the AI in a lot of scenarios.鈥
US export controls both help and hinder AI use in China
has sought to stack the deck in its favor, investing heavily in nurturing talent and ensuring access to abundant, affordable electricity for power-hungry AI developments and breakthroughs.
To achieve technology breakthroughs including in AI, Chinese leaders have pledged an annual average growth of in nationwide spending on research and development in the country鈥檚 five-year plan until 2030. An 鈥淎I plus鈥 national blueprint outlines steps to integrate AI into many areas of life, from healthcare to education. Judges in Shenzhen processed 50% more cases last year, a court said, partly with the help of an AI tool assisting judicial processes.
However, limited access to the some of the world鈥檚 most advanced computer chips due to U.S. restrictions remains a bottleneck for China鈥檚 AI advancement.
鈥淓xport controls on tools have slowed China鈥檚 chipmaking capabilities, and are the Achilles' heel of many AI labs that need advanced AI chips,鈥 said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at New America focused on Chinese technology policies.
But the controls also have led to improved coordination of design, manufacturing and adoption across China鈥檚 tech supply chain. 鈥淥ver time this dynamic could fuel, not foil, China鈥檚 ambitions,鈥 Sacks said.
China is becoming an AI 鈥榠nnovator鈥
When China's DeepSeek released its long-anticipated V4 AI model preview last month, one major change was that it鈥檚 in part by computer chips made by Chinese tech giant Huawei. That means less dependence on top U.S. chipmakers such as Nvidia.
A recent report by Stanford University鈥檚 Institute for Human-Centered AI says the U.S.-China gap in top AI models鈥 performance has 鈥渆ffectively closed.鈥
U.S. policymakers and top AI firms including Anthropic and OpenAI have Chinese AI startups of stealing U.S. AI technologies. China says such allegations are groundless.
Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at the research and advisory group Omdia, believes any AI gap between the U.S. and China will continue to narrow, despite U.S. export controls and China鈥檚 Great Firewall, the ruling Communist Party's massive internet filter and censorship system.
Analysts including Su believe that hurdles such as the Great Firewall are will likely impacts China's AI use in limited ways, given that the technology already is being tested, integrated and scaled up under China's controlled internet environment.
鈥淚t won鈥檛 be long before China moves from fast follower to parallel innovator,鈥 he said.
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AP researcher Shihuan Chen and journalists Dake Kang in Beijing and Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island contributed.
