China wants to lead the AI race. They call it progress. They actually mean they want to exert control through automation.

They are terrified of the empty factories and quiet offices that follow. A massive, jobless population is bad for social order. The state wants the efficiency of the machine without the cost of a useless human class.

The plan is a lie. You cannot have the efficiency of the algorithm and keep the human worker. The technology is designed to erase the need for people. The state is just trying to slow the decay to prevent a riot.

The features of this decay are simple.

• Automated surveillance.
• Ghost factories.
• The slow erasure of human utility.