China expresses concern that AI companions might distract young people from focusing on technological advancement and entrepreneurship. The government wants youth to build the future and create Chinese versions of companies like SpaceX.

China is worried A.I. companions could be a drag on productivity. On “Interesting Times,” Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells the Opinion columnist Ross Douthat that the government thinks youth “should be engineering the future and building out the start-ups and the future Chinese versions of SpaceX.”