The Tamesis
Due to increasing government subsidies for such enterprises and uncertainty in the job market, more and more young people in China are starting “one-person companies” where artificial intelligence does most of the work.
Smaller startups have become popular in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, where rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools are seen as welcome teammates even as they threaten job losses at existing companies.
They are also making rapid progress in China, where the government provides millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies to such businesses.
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The funding is in line with Beijing’s political goals of “technological self-reliance” and provides some job security for many young Chinese after the age of 35 who worry about age discrimination in the workplace.
“One-person companies are a product of the artificial intelligence era,” said Karen Dai, founder of Shanghai-based SoloNest, which hosts weekend events for individual entrepreneurs.
In the past, running a business alone has been difficult, she said, but the range of tasks that AI can help with “lowers the barrier to entry.”
On a Sunday in Shanghai, about 20 people in their 20s and 30s crammed into a conference room for Dai’s 134th three-hour exchange of ideas about going it alone.
One participant, Wang Tianyi, now earns up to 40,000 yuan ($5,800) a month creating AI-generated ads for businesses.
The 26-year-old, who quit his job as a product manager at an internet company last year, predicts solo flying will become a “big trend”.
“(One-person companies) have efficiency advantages due to the technological empowerment brought by artificial intelligence,” he told AFP.
‘I’m probably going to be eliminated soon’
On Chinese social media, people have been bemoaning for years the so-called “35-year-old curse” — endemic age discrimination in technology, government and other competitive industries.
“At 35, there’s an invisible line,” Day, 38, said.
“People may face some challenges in the workplace. Companies may re-evaluate who is better suited to stay.”
But young people who have witnessed a decade of rapid economic expansion in China are eager to grow, said Dai, author of “Company of One.”
“When you are 30 or even younger, you ask yourself: What should I do to prepare when I reach that invisible line of 35?” she said.
Wei Xin, a 34-year-old Shanghai resident, knew her job as a document reviewer for a foreign consulting firm before AI really took over.
So she signed up for a course at Google Gemini and tried creating AI-generated digital versions of herself, before moving onto social media content creation.
“People are a little anxious about artificial intelligence,” said Wei, who returned to China last year after completing a degree in the United States.
“If I don’t use it, don’t go near it, I’ll probably be eliminated pretty quickly.”
Beijing’s new approach to solving unemployment problem
Chinese cities are rolling out policies to support AI-powered one-person companies, using the abbreviation “OPC” — a rare English usage in official policy.
In November, the eastern city of Suzhou pledged to cultivate “more than 10,000 OPC talents” by 2028 and invest about 700 million yuan ($100 million) in areas such as artificial intelligence robotics, healthcare and smart transportation.
Southwest Chengdu also pledged last month to provide subsidies of up to 20,000 yuan for graduates to start individual businesses powered by artificial intelligence.
Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on China’s technology development, said these measures are “the carrot that helps these startups get off the ground and succeed.”
Sponsoring the OPC is a new, cheap way to address China’s high youth unemployment rate – one in six people aged 16 to 24 is unemployed.
“For OPC, the cost for local governments to do this is very low,” Chen said.
Wang, a former product manager, said many of his friends chose to work on independent projects rather than compete for corporate positions.
But he said “the big question going forward will be how to sell it” because new companies often struggle to turn a profit.
As young people in China invest in backup plans, they “ask themselves, ‘Can I use my own two hands, with the convenience of artificial intelligence, to explore what I say I want to do?'” Dai said.
“There’s a sense of control and creativity.”
- Vishakha Saxena Additional Editor AFP
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