Welcome to Deep Dive Panda! We've spent the week decoding the most important conversations from over 18 hours of Chinese tech, business, and AI podcasts.

The AI conversation in China has totally changed. The first wave of productivity tools? That's seen as a solved problem. They're not trying to make us more efficient anymore. They're using AI to invent new ways for people to connect and have fun.

The Unifying Theme

The first story we all bought into about generative AI was simple. It was our super-smart intern. It wrote our emails, fixed our code, and summed up our meetings. It was a tool to make work faster and cheaper, and that's a huge market. For the last couple of years, that's what everyone was building.

But in China, that's old news. The most interesting people there aren't talking about AI as a tool. They're talking about it as a medium. A tool makes an old job easier. A medium creates something brand new. The big question isn't "How can AI make us more efficient?" It's "What new human experiences can AI unlock?"

The best example is the reaction to Sora. In the West, it's all about disrupting Hollywood. In China, it's about disrupting your friend group. Founders aren't pumped to make cheaper movies. They're excited to build apps that let you and your friends star in a short video together. The goal isn't a perfect copy of reality. It's about creating a new reality you share with your friends. Who cares if the videos look a little janky? That's not the point. The point is connection. You care because your friend is in the video, not because it looks perfect.

This shows a bigger shift. As AI gets better and cheaper, the real value isn't the tech itself. The tech is becoming a commodity. The only things you can really defend are taste, community, and knowing your user. It's a move away from perfect, soulless videos and towards messy, fun, human experiences you create with people you know.

Why It Matters

For founders and investors in the West, this is a huge signal. If your AI pitch is still just "we make X 10% faster," you're already behind. The real wins are in answering a different question: "What totally new thing can people do with our product?" The companies that last won't just use AI to do old things better. They'll build things that were totally impossible before AI.

This means we need to look for opportunities in different places. The productivity gold rush is ending. The next billion-dollar companies are coming from social, gaming, and entertainment. In these markets, AI doesn't just make things more efficient—it creates entirely new kinds of fun. The game is shifting. It's no longer a battle over who has the best model. It's a battle over who best understands their users. Can you use AI to create a new way for people to connect and feel seen?

While the West obsesses over bigger models for big companies, China's builders are sprinting after a massive consumer prize. This is where the next TikTok is going to come from.

Key Patterns & Strategic Takeaways

  • The AI-Native Test: Here's a simple test. If you took the AI out of your product, would it just get more expensive, or would the whole thing fall apart? If it just costs more, you built a feature. If it falls apart, you've built something new.

  • Your Advantage Isn't the Tech: The core tech is getting commoditized. Your real advantage isn't the AI model. It's the unique data you have, the community you've built, or the way you understand your users.

  • Content: Product or Marketing? A big question for creators. Is your content the thing you sell? Or is it free marketing to build a huge audience for something else, like merch? You have to pick a side.

  • From Copycat to Trendsetter: China's tech scene isn't just copying anymore. They're creating. Smart players like TikTok are even open-sourcing their internal tools, like their custom font, to make their style the industry standard.

  • Anxiety is a Feature: One founder put it perfectly. That constant anxiety you feel about falling behind? It's not a bug, it's a feature. It's the fuel that keeps you moving fast in a world that's changing every day. You can't fight it, so you might as well use it.

Pivotal Quotes

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"Making a video with Sam Altman... Could this have happened before? Yes... but the cost would be over 10,000 times higher. So high that it was practically impossible... Now, it can happen anytime. This is an experience that didn't exist before... This is an AI-native experience."

Chen Mian, Founder of Lovart
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"The AI era shatters a core belief: that effort brings rewards. It doesn't. It doesn't. AI is omniscient. Your learning ability can't keep up with the speed of its model's evolution."

Tim Pan, Founder of MediaStorm
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"Sora can generate a perfect video of lovers embracing, but it can never replace the feeling of a real, clumsy hug. Because technology's logic is simulation, while humanity's logic is experience."

Chen Laoshi, Podcast Speaker
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"AI will fundamentally re-architect the entire software industry... It creates a new kind of connection, even a new relationship of production."

Wu Minghui, Founder & CEO of Mininglamp Technology

This week's Deep Dive Panda covers 15 specific podcast episodes, including:

Here are the key lessons & mental models from each episode:

1. Zhang Xiaojun Jùn | Business Interviews - 116. Wu Minghui's 19-year history: long ups and downs, painful turns, enterprise-level agentic models, real-world numerical games, and IPOs

Original: 张小珺Jùn｜商业访谈录 — 116. 吴明辉口述19年史：漫长的沉浮、痛苦急转、企业级Agentic Model、现实世界的数值游戏、IPO

What You Need to Know:

  • Your Data Is Your Moat. AI models are starting to feel like a basic utility, like electricity. What really sets you apart is the unique data you feed them. The winning companies won't be the ones with the fanciest model. They'll be the ones who use their own special industry data to build an AI that just works better for their customers. The real fight isn't over the AI model, it's over the data you put in it.

  • Agents Are the Real Breakthrough. The big deal for AI in business isn't another chatbot. It's AI agents that can actually use your old, clunky software just like a person would, by clicking around on the screen. This totally sidesteps the nightmare of trying to get different systems to talk to each other. It’s a whole new way for all your software to finally work together.

  • There's a Limit to Bigger AI. This idea that we can just keep making AI models bigger and bigger forever is probably wrong. Just like buildings can only get so tall, AI models have limits. The future isn't one giant, all-knowing AI. Instead, we'll see a bunch of smaller, specialized AIs that team up to solve problems. This means there's room for lots of different companies to win, not just a few big ones.

  • Surviving a Crisis Changes You. Nothing transforms a founder like a near-death experience for their company. Running on fumes with only a month of cash left forces you to stop dreaming and start executing. When you have almost nothing, you have to get focused and efficient, fast. It’s a brutal way to learn, but it builds the grit you need to last.

  • AI's "Black Box" Is a Huge Plus in China. In China's B2B software world, clients often demand the source code, which basically gives away your secret sauce. But AI models are a game-changer. You can give a client the model, but the real magic—the unique data and training that made it smart—stays with you. It’s a "black box," and it makes AI a much more defensible business over there.

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"AI will fundamentally re-architect the entire software industry, enterprise services, and even the entire industrial internet. It creates a new kind of connection, even a new relationship of production."

Wu Minghui, Founder & CEO of Mininglamp Technology
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