A conversation with Yi-Ling Liu about "The Wall Dancers," her new book on the Chinese internet. We discussed freedom, control, living within truth, and what happens when the walls rise everywhere.
This piece shifted my thinking on AI. I used to assume it would only help dictators control populations. But when everyone can use AI to code and create, it lowers the barrier for each "wall dancer" to find creative, collective ways to fight the Leviathan. The tools that concentrate power can also disperse it.
Also loved the conclusion: we need to see China dialectically, not as a flattened binary. And Yi-Ling is right that cultivating independent thinking and agency is the hardest part.
This piece shifted my thinking on AI. I used to assume it would only help dictators control populations. But when everyone can use AI to code and create, it lowers the barrier for each "wall dancer" to find creative, collective ways to fight the Leviathan. The tools that concentrate power can also disperse it.
Also loved the conclusion: we need to see China dialectically, not as a flattened binary. And Yi-Ling is right that cultivating independent thinking and agency is the hardest part.