New working paper (pre-review), maybe my most important in recent years. I examine the evidence for the US-China race to AGI and decisive strategic advantage, & analyse the impact this narrative is having on our prospects for cooperation on safety. 1/5 papers.ssrn.com/abstract=52786…

Introducing... China Thinkpiece Bingo!

Along with amazing colleagues, I’ve been laid off from the The Wall Street Journal in NY as it reshapes its China coverage. Grateful to colleagues and readers who taught me so much. I’m excited (and a bit nervous) to explore what’s next—please get in touch with opportunities, ideas and tips!

Not long after DeepSeek R1 launched, I discovered that my mother had started using the chatbot as her virtual doctor. I worried about her reliance on AI. But over time, I realized Dr. DeepSeek was offering something no human in her life could. restofworld.org/2025/ai-chatbo…

Society needs in-depth reporting on AI and its impacts, to understand how the world is changing and to do something about it. Tarbell's reporting grants can help. Journalists, pitch us on key AI beats by 14 Sept.

When I launched Transformer a year ago, it was with a simple mission: provide decision-makers with the information and analysis needed to anticipate and steer the impacts of transformative AI. Today, we're announcing an exciting new effort to achieve that: Transformer 2.0.

Our new magazine Equator is officially out in the world. Sign up for preview emails, donate, and get tickets to our launch event: equator.org.

sc.mp/ukdo4?utm_sour… Exclusive: DeepSeek evaluates AI models for ‘frontier risks’ The company has conducted evaluations on self-replication and cyber-offensive capabilities in particular. It's not clear when the evaluations were completed or which of the company’s models

We’re reviving up the NYT Magazine On Language column, and thankfully our own Nitsuh Abebe is at the wheel. The first is about em dashes—why people thought only A.I. used them, how A.I. learned to love them, and how we increasingly write like we speak. nytimes.com/2025/09/18/mag…

One publication I’m really excited about this year is Equator. Link in reply

"The real question is less about becoming “stupider” as a result of AI, and more about near-term cognitive disempowerment: how AI is reshaping our relationship with thinking." great piece by Celia Ford for Transformer

Young people in China say that AI chatbots save them time and money, and are more discreet in a society where stigma around mental health persists. But there are risks to chatbots becoming therapists, writes Yi-Ling Liu for Rest of World restofworld.org/2025/young-peo…

“On social media, users avidly chronicle their heart-to-heart conversations with chatbots, attempting to address anxiety, depression, and relationship issues. On Xiaohongshu, searches for ‘crying after chatting with AI’ are linked to over 1 million posts.” restofworld.org/2025/young-peo…

30,000 Chinese migrant workers travel to remote islands in Indonesia to process nickel for EV batteries, risking their lives on the frontier of the green energy transition Read Wufei Yu 余物非’s new feature, produced grist and republished by Rest of World restofworld.org/2025/chinese-m…

Young people in China are turning to AI chatbots like DeepSeek and Doubao for therapy to save time and money, while avoiding stigma around mental health (Yi-Ling Liu / Rest of World) restofworld.org/2025/young-peo… techmeme.com/251012/p14#a25… 📫 Subscribe: techmeme.com/newsletter?fro…

NEW: Three more nonprofits subpoenaed by OpenAI allege the requests were unusually broad and concerning. All of the nonprofits had been critical of OpenAI's plans to reorganize from a nonprofit to a for-profit company. nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

LMAO. Here’s the first sentence of this Kushner “profile”:

NEW: With 157 M users, ByteDance’s Doubao 豆包 has officially surpassed DeepSeek to be the most popular AI app in China. It targeted those who can’t craft a prompt. “Some of the earliest Doubao users I heard of were my friends’ grandmothers & aunties.” wired.com/story/bytedanc…