The New Epoch and Its Subversion: AI Imaginaries in China’s Internet Industry

Abstract This article examines the generative artificial intelligence ( AI ) boom amid China’s internet industry downturn through AI imaginaries produced by both Chinese internet entrepreneurs and workers. By analyzing entrepreneurs’ public speeches, tech worker interviews, and online AI -related gossip, this article describes three conceptual tools for exploring these intersecting and competing imaginaries: AI manifestos articulated by entrepreneurs to legitimize technocentric visions, AI strategies developed by workers based on labour-oriented concerns, and AI satire contesting big tech’s authority in shaping social imaginaries with subversive humour. China’s internet industry is a unique stage on which multiple AI imaginaries play out, providing a lens for examining the power geometry at work in the formation of imaginaries. Contextualized in China’s internet industry, this article contributes to the study of AI imaginaries by investigating how the technological visions of AI are continuously reworked, debated, and contested in the interaction between two conflicting, yet intertwined, social classes.