China’s web novel platforms embraced AI. Now they are fighting it

Originated from China’s internet forums in the 1990s, web novels are typically serialized stories designed for people to read on their smartphones, featuring adrenaline-pumping plotlines about revenge, time traveling, wuxia battles, or romance dramas. 

Tech companies including ByteDance, Tencent, and Baidu own China’s most influential web novel platforms. They generate billions of dollars a year in advertising and subscription revenues, and pay individual authors based on readership. Chinese companies have also launched similar reading apps in the U.S.

Authors are now turning to AI tools to bulk-produce viral stories. While platforms initially encouraged writers to boost productivity with AI, they are now under pressure to crack down on AI-generated writing that threatens creativity and risks driving readers away, writes Rest of World senior reporter Viola Zhou.

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Dispatches from the ground 

This week: A new humanoid enters the market, and the UAE creates a single body to oversee AI.

China
Chinese robotics startup UBTech has unveiled a lifelike humanoid designed to be a personal companion. The robot, which comes in male and female versions, is priced in three tiers from  $17,650 to $145,700. Equipped with soft silicone skin, 88 joints, and large language models, the robots can recognize human emotions and offer comfort as well as warm hugs. UBTech said it has received more than 10,000 orders, and will start shipping in September. But many internet users have found the robots’ still-stiff movements scary rather than comforting. Chinese robotics startups are getting creative in marketing their early products, before robots become smart enough for actual human work. — Viola Zhou from New York City

Middle East
The United Arab Emirates has created a single national body to oversee artificial intelligence, public data, and digital government across the country. The new Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority will merge three agencies and expand AI’s role in government decision-making, public services, and day-to-day operations. The move consolidates a series of AI commitments the UAE has made in recent months. The government plans to run half of all federal services on autonomous AI systems within two years, and is training 80,000 civil servants to use the technology. Internationally, the UAE has joined the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, securing  access to the advanced Nvidia chips that will power the Stargate AI campus being built in Abu Dhabi by G42 with OpenAI, Oracle, and Cisco. — Indranil Ghosh from Abu Dhabi

On location 

And one more thing...

China’s EV makers like BYD and Chery, squeezed at home, are moving into Europe’s idle car factories.